Ditto.

Yeah…it's going to get freaky and crazy again, but you could tell that from the title, right? You might not really understand this madness, but this whole conflict does have some meaning to it. But, even better…chapter 8 is next! Whee! Sorry if you get confused this chapter, but you'll like the next one.

I want to thank everyone…for helping me break my review record! (throws confetti and hands everyone pieces of cake) 35 reviews! (my previous record was 32). About the powers thing…yeah, it's screwed up. I've actually never seen the first episode of XS, or even most of the first season, so that's why I have inaccuracies like that. Of course I could also excuse it that the Dragon of Metal powers can be inherited, since they're much different and separate from the other four, which is explained in chapter 9… but, that still makes Julie a freak of nature anyway.

-

Chapter 7: True Evil

The wispy screen of reddish power was wrapping around both Jack and Julie, while at the same time, it felt as if something was trying to wrench their hearts out of their chests. Is this what it's like to die? Jack found himself wondering. It's too early…I need to go back and change the world… I just found out that I'm the Dragon of Metal! …And now, I'm going to die…

Suddenly, a different feeling began around him…it was the familiar feel of wind whipping around his body. At last, Jack decided to open his eyes, though a little afraid of what he might find in front of him.

The throne room was gone. He was sitting on the scaly back of Dojo, with Julie sitting, daintily behind him, her long, ripped, black-and-purple dress blowing in the wind along with her black hair.

"Wow…" she marveled to herself. "I'm really flying on the legendary guardian dragon's back! I didn't know he'd been freed…"

"You saved us?" Jack asked, astounded. He thought he'd remembered Dojo telling him that he'd wait for them at the bottom of the castle.

"Seems I came just in time," Dojo said, turning his head back to look at them. "The guards spotted me, but they're so slow, I was able to get away from them easily. Since I was stuck up in the air, I decided to float by the tower and see how you were doing. It's a good thing I did, huh?"

Julie's identical red eyes lit up, in surprise and delight. "You can talk?" she continued to gush at the large Chinese dragon.

That was when it hit Jack- suddenly Dojo was talking to him. There was no more thought-projection required. "So, suddenly you learned how to talk to humans again?" he commented, crossing his arms across his chest, suspiciously.

"No," Dojo replied, throwing a satisfied smile over at him. "I still can't talk to humans. But those with the sacred Xiaolin elemental powers can hear my voice. Everyone else just hears roaring…"

"Yeah, Jack's Metal," Julie told him, proudly, "And I'm the combined element power, Meltdown. Oh, that's right, I forgot to introduce myself." She bowed her head, politely, and held out her hand to the dragon. "Hello, I'm Grand Mistress Julienne Spicer. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I know," Dojo replied, nodding his head at her, since he couldn't shake her hand in the sky. "I've heard a lot about you at the prison next to the electric plant."

Julie frowned at this statement. "Yeah, the electric plant…that place is horrible. I'm glad someone got you out of there."

"Hello!" Jack called up to her. "I did!"

She looked surprised, and also a little hopeful. "Really?"

"Yup, and I also freed the other slaves there. I could have died, but somehow, I did."

"Your powers were first starting to emerge," Dojo explained. "That was what enabled me to project my thoughts to you earlier."

"You knew I was the Dragon of Metal all along, didn't you?" Jack retaliated, raising an eyebrow.

Dojo smiled, secretly and turned back to the front. "Oh, I've known for a long time. But it was fun watching you in denial of yourself." He chuckled a little to himself. As the thin, serpentine dragon sliced his way around the black, jagged castle, they began to see a congregation of black-and-white spotted people on the ground below.

"Those guards are still after you, huh?" Julie said, concernedly. She shaded her eyes against the wind and tried to see the men's armor markings to identify them.

"They're a Facist troop," Dojo answered for her. "It was the original palace guards who noticed me at first, but a bunch of Facists were sent out to try to restrain me with their Shen-Gong-Wu…" As he spoke about the following men, the peppered dots began to move together on the hard, concrete below.

"Now what are they doing?" Julie asked, as she pulled her whipping hair back to get a better view. Just as she leaned a little closer to one side of the dragon, a large destructive beam came shooting straight up at her. She squealed a little and slid back into position to get out of its way. "Well, that answers that question. It looks like they're trying to attack us!"

"That looked like the beam from the Eye of Dashi," Jack commented. "If these are the same palace Facists that came to get us, two of them have the Tangle Web Comb and the Silver Manta Ray, and the leader has Kimiko's power with the Star Hanabi."

"I don't think they're the same ones," Julie replied, carefully turning her wildly flapping head back towards him. "This is the west portion of the castle. And wouldn't they have tried to tie Dojo up with the Tangle Web Comb instead of attacking?"

While the criminal princess continued to try to explain, a second beam from the Eye of Dashi flashed across the air, with no anticipation. The yellow beam flew up from the side, and suddenly knocked Jack off the slippery reptile's back. He screamed and flailed in desperation as he thundered towards the ground.

"No, Jack!" Julie cried, scrambling dangerously close to Dojo's neck and looking down. "C'mon!" she yelled into the dragon's nearby ear. "Don't just hover there! We've got to save!"

Dojo was a bit apprehensive, since he knew if he flew any closer the Facist congregation, they'd probably catch him, but it was part of his job to keep his Xiaolin Warriors safe. As the mighty dragon whooshed down among the masked harbingers of doom, he looked to the right to see that unfortunately, he was too late. Jack's black-coated body was still falling, and before the jet-streamed creature could zoom over, it slammed into the waiting arms of the most decorated Facist in the crowd.

Julie's pink lips fell open. "…Oh, no… Now what do we do?" Her thin, arching eyebrows, resembling Kimiko's Japanese ones scrunched up in worry.

Just then, a separate follower from down below held up a golden, four-pronged item on a chain, calling "Eye of Dashi, Wind!"

Dojo barely maneuvered out of the way, trembling with stressful action. "We run!" he yelled, turning and fleeing from the bombardment of Shen-Gong-Wu attacks that followed.

"What are you doing!" Julie scolded him. "You can't just leave Jack there! They'll take him back to the power plant… Actually, with all the crimes he's committed now, they'll probably just kill him!"

"Don't worry so much," Dojo advised her, grinning back at the nervous princess. "He's got powers to fend them off. We'll come back in few minutes when they're not expecting us."

Julie scowled, not much satisfied with this plan, but she was obliged to follow the orders of the powerful temple guardian and continued to hang tight to his neck as they wound off around the Hill Palace.

-

Meanwhile, on the similarly speckled concrete ground outside of the Hill Palace, the conflict was playing out between the captive and the captors. As soon as he had landed, Jack had jumped out of the Western Section Facist leader's hands, taking a position and trying to look threatening, even though he couldn't figure out how to access his powers again. He could probably just yell "Metal" again, he thought, but the feeling wasn't the same; he couldn't reproduce the same feelings he'd had when he'd first attacked.

Now, the Facists were sneaking up on him, attempting to capture him again. These ones were very different…they were the Wind Team, and their leader seemed much more silent and deadly then the Fire Team leader. The tall, black-and-white men surrounded Jack like pawns on a chessboard, blocking out all of his potential exits.

He looked up at the unusual masks they all wore. It was strange how the Facists and all of the other guards, for that matter, wore these helmets and masks to hide their identities.

Getting a flash of inspiration, Jack jumped up towards the leader's face, and somehow managed to quickly wrench the checkered helmet from his head. Jack gasped as a black mane tumbled out from underneath. He nearly fainted when he got a look at the face and flickering orange eye that accompanied it. "Chase…Young!" he cried. He didn't know that his power extended over even his own super-villain idol.

Chase, as all the other Facists did in case their helmets came off, also has the usual Jack face paint. "My name is General 1," Chase replied in a grave tone. "Chase Young…is a thing of the past. I used to be Chase Young…" That was when he noticed a few familiar nuances in Jack's face and clothing. "…And all that time I was Chase Young, I never could tell… It was impossible to guess…" He unexpectedly reached over, squeezing Jack around the neck and pulling him up to his face in his rage. "…And all that time…I had the very key within my grasp!"

Jack shuddered and struggled in the man's hand. At last, Chase's Facist partners persuaded him to let go. Jack tumbled back to the cold concrete palace paving and looked concernedly back up at Chase. "Why didn't I…um he just give you Dojo so that you could complete your potion?" he asked.

"Because then I would outlive him, dummy!" Chase objected. "He doesn't want me to take over after he dies, he wants his son to. But he's got no son anyway! Ha!"

The other Facists rushed over worriedly, but Jack continued to question the evil monk, rigorously. "But…but we could've shared the potion and both lived forever…"

"In the world of evil geniuses," Chase explained. "There is no such concept as 'sharing."

Jack blinked, and slowly began to lift back to his feet. "But…but you were my idol…" he tried to object. There was no reason to. What was done was done. Or what will be done…

"Aw, well, I'm actually pretty lucky," Chase continued, picking up his helmet and placing it over his head again, where it belonged. "It's not so bad being a Facist. Never thought I'd be grateful to have a Shen-Gong-Wu…"

Jack stared, as the former evil master stepped back to activate his token Shen-Gong-Wu. "C'mon, guys," he called to his troops. "We're going to leave this one for now. He's a special case. Monsoon Sandals!"

The rest of the Facists scurried off underneath as Chase grew about twenty feet and began to hop away on his long, springy legs.

Jack just continued to gape for an additional five minutes. These had been the exact same magical items he'd offered to Chase the first time they'd met, to which he replied, "I don't need Shen-Gong-Wu." To see the once idealistic villain reduced to the lowly job of a guard with a magical item… It wasn't as strong an example as his father and the Mustards sisters being burned, but still it extended on the realization that Jack's choices could affect everyone.

Suddenly, he heard a familiar female voice behind him. "Hello! Are you just going to stand there all day!" Julie was standing, primly on the neck of the giant green guardian dragon, one hand extended toward him. Dojo had landed on the ground after the Facists had retreated.

At last, Jack turned around and acknowledged their presence. "Oh…right…yeah…" He dazedly climbed back onto the dragon, though Julie glanced over at him with an odd, suspicious look.

"So…what happened?" she at last spoke up as Dojo began to lift into the air once again.

"One of the Facist guards used to be a really powerful super-villain," Jack started, trying to shake out of his slightly stupefied state. "It was kind of…weird to see him like that."

Julie simply frowned and turned her head back to the front, gripping the edge of Dojo's mane. "Well, I guess an even more powerful super-villain got the better of him."

Jack knew it wasn't his fault- he'd never done anything to lead to this in the present world, but somehow, just from her tone of voice, his daughter seemed angry at him. Yeah, he spontaneously thought, all of this is my fault. Everything's always my fault…

The atmosphere between the two family members fell uncomfortably silent. The only noises Jack could hear was the slapping of Dojo's adornments against the scales, and the wind pushing against his eardrums. Mindlessly, he reached up and pulled his goggles over his eyes, perhaps trying to protect his ears with their black rubber band. At that moment, Julie happened to turn around again, and her eyes widened for a moment when she got a look at him.

"What?" Jack said when he noticed her staring at him.

"Ah…sorry. I've never seen you with those goggles on, that's all. They look weird with those swirls on the lenses. How can you see out of them, anyway?"

Jack just shrugged his bony shoulders. "Don't know, actually. I guess the paint is see-through from the inside…"

"Where'd you get them in the first place?"

"My dad. Where else? …Well, actually, I bought this coat for myself, and since I knew he wouldn't let me keep it, I had to package it up, and address it to me to make it look like it had come in the mail from my grandma."

Julie couldn't help giggling a bit, as much as she tried to hold it back. "Really? Did you send it to yourself?"

"Yup," Jack replied, grinning a little with her. "I actually sent it through the mail back to my house. It's fun getting gifts from yourself. That way you know you'll like it!"

Julie giggled a little again. "That's right," she said, getting back to her serious self again. "I forgot how…different you are. It's scary how different you are from Dad…even though you are Dad… It's almost like you became a totally different person."

At last, Dojo was approaching the long, menacing black towers again, and turned back around to verify their destination. "So, where to, my new Dragons?"

Julie suggestively looked off into the sunset, obviously wishing to get away from this place at all costs, but Jack lifted his goggles back up to contradict her. "No. I tried that already. There's no use trying to run away. I rule this planet, remember? Wherever you go, you can't escape from me."

Julie drooped, disappointedly again. "So…what can we do?"

Jack gritted his teeth. This was taking a big risk, especially when he wasn't sure of how his new Dragon of Metal powers worked yet, but it was the only thing he could think of to do now. "We go back to the throne room…and take care of the root of the problem!"

Julie covered her mouth, halfway from shock and halfway from nervousness. "But…we can't kill him. That would kill you, wouldn't it?"

Jack averted his gaze back down to the dragon scales below him, thoughtfully. "Well…" he proposed. "Not necessarily. This is the future. Well, it is to me. If I kill my future self, I'd still be alive in the present. In that sense, I have an advantage. If he kills me, that would kill him, since I'm his past self. …It might actually kill you; you might never be born."

"I don't like the sound of this," Julie disagreed. "There are too many risks in it… We could all end up dying!"

"I think we'll be okay," Jack tried to reassure her. "We've got powers, haven't we?"

"Yes, but mine aren't very strong, and you just got yours and don't really know how to use them yet…"

Before she continued trying to dissuade him, he slipped closer to Dojo's head, and at last gave the command. "Okay. We're going back up to the throne room. It's time to settle this."

Dojo nodded, his long mustache tentacles bouncing, and swerved to the right to spiral towards the topmost tower once again.

Julie shivered, looking into the foreboding shadows of the giant palace. She'd been in that terrifying shadow her entire life, and now suddenly thrust out of it, she was reluctant to slip back in.

When Dojo flew by the twisted, darkened windows of the tower, they noticed that Ultimate Master Jack hadn't been just sitting around since they'd been rescued. They saw the evil dictator's violet lined cape fluttering around his armored body as he rushed madly around the room, securing fasteners on the walls.

"What's he doing?" Jack asked, squinting to get a better look. "Or what am I doing?"

"I don't know," Julie truthfully answered. "I've never seen him this active before. Usually, he doesn't even walk around the room."

"Okay," Dojo whispered back to the two of them. "Now what? You ready to crash in?"

Jack took a deep breath, and he could sense Julie on his side, doing the same. "Well…here we go. …We're ready!"

With that declaration, the long dragon shot forward like an arrow, building speed, until he turned around and crashed through the glass window. Jack and Julie quickly jumped off to the plush red carpet, just before their transportation slammed into the wall on the other side. A couple of bricks came loose in the process and went clattering to the floor in a duty pile.

Ultimate Master Jack immediately noticed, turning around and smirking at them. It was actually a pretty common sight, and Jack could almost recognize his own expression, but suddenly he had a terrible urge to just knock that stupid grin off his own face.

"Oh, I knew you two pesky troublemakers would show up again," the ruler said, in a slightly excited tone.

"He's got something up his sleeve," Julie whispered over to Jack. "He probably started setting a bunch of traps around the room once he saw us coming."

Jack gritted his teeth in disgust. "Well, he's not going to even have a chance to activate them! Metal!" He held out his arms in a random position, unsure of how exactly he'd been posed when he'd first attacked. Nothing happened, once again.

His future self laughed at him. "Ha! You can't even use your Xiaolin powers. That shows how 'powerful' you are with them. In that pitiful form, you don't stand a chance. Why don't you listen to yourself and give it up?"

"That's exactly what I did," Jack retorted, narrowing his red eyes. "Only in a better sense."

"Well, enough dawdling," the ultimate master decided, holding up a small device with a button. "Let's cut to the chase, shall we?"

Julie gave off a small gasp, and immediately held up her arms, attempting to attack him and knock the button out of his hand. "Comet Blaze, Meltdown!" The swirl appeared under her feet again, and a flaming chunk of metal went hurling towards the ultimate master. The fireball just barely missed his hand and went whizzing past his head. Julie gaped and started to try again, but by then, it was too late. He pushed the little blue button down into its electrical holder.

Jack turned away from the scene and waited for something to explode, but nothing seemed that unstable. Then, when he looked back again, he looked straight at the walls…and they looked different somehow. Julie glanced around, in both fascination and fear.

The walls were collapsing, but they seemed to be…lifting up into the sky. At last, the walls tucked underneath themselves, and they were now standing on a huge platform in the middle of the sky. The swirling, mud-colored clouds flew across their perch, and suddenly, a new fear sprang up in Jack's chest.

Oh, my God...I'm thousands of feet up in the air…with no HeliPack! He'd been able to survive long falls before, but this one he knew he wouldn't be able to walk away from. This tower was taller even than the Empire State Building! Now what have I gotten myself into…

The Ultimate Master casually flicked another button on the control panel in his hands, and the rest of the palace exploded in a forest of flames and debris. Jack immediately wrenched his head from the horrific sight, in case a little more than that came flying out of the ruins. Everyone inside the castle had just been destroyed, including the Xiaolin Warriors, the Facists, and Chase Young… He had done it so casually, as if he were simply playing a video game, and not murdering his workers.

For a moment, Jack felt terrible, knowing that he had just killed Kimiko, but turned back to his future self, furious with his actions. "Why did you do that!" he cried. "Now your whole castle is destroyed!"

"I can always have the people build me another one. They are my slaves, after all," Ultimate Master Jack answered, as if it should be obvious. "I was getting sick and tired of that old castle anyway. Maybe this time I'll build a gigantic mansion, and redo the décor."

"What about your 'plan' to get yourself a son?" Jack objected. "You just killed Kimiko now. Unless you plan on getting some other girl…"

"I don't need a son," the ultimate master replied. "I've got everything I ever needed right here!" He discreetly snuck a glance over at the unconscious Dojo, his coils teetering on the edge of the platform.

Julie panicked and ran over to haul him the rest of the way on. Ultimate Master Jack laughed at her feeble attempt, but his former self continued to stare, discontentedly at him.

"You're not killing him just so you can live forever and continue to make everyone else miserable for eternity. Just what are you planning on doing about us, huh?"

At that statement, the ultimate master's face erupted into a baleful sneer again. "So glad you asked… Soul Scepter, Metal!"

Jack immediately put up his arms in a desperate attempt to shield himself from the Shen-Gong-Wu's soul-snatching red beam, but this time it wasn't aimed in his direction. An earsplitting shriek shot through the air, as the beam flashed by Jack's cheek…and straight into the body of his future daughter. "Julie!" he exclaimed, hurrying to the teenage girl's side.

By that time, it was too late. Julie lied in a rumpled, torn, black heap against the carpeted platform. She looked to be unconscious, but Jack couldn't tell for sure. He forced her body on its back and leaned down against her shoulders, repeatedly calling her name. "Julie! Julie! Can you hear me! Are you okay! Open your eyes, Julie!"

"Open your eyes, Julie," the ultimate master echoed from his position at the end of the platform. Instantly, the girl's eyelids snapped open, and Jack jumped back when he got a look at those dark voids. The eyes are the windows to the soul…and now, the windows showed nothing. He'd successfully captured her soul.

Jack looked over to his own likeness, who was grinning, crazily and admiring the swirling wisps of power inside the red crystal of the Soul Scepter. He stepped aside from the mindless girl to face himself. The two Jacks were face-to-face now, confronting each other…confronting themselves.

"What are you going to do now?" Jack finally spoke up. "Kill me?" This strange, enlightening statement suddenly made him realize something, and the more he thought about it, the more he drew power from it. "Yeah. Kill me. Go on, I dare you. You can't kill me. You like to watch me suffer, but you can't kill me, because then you would die. That makes me immune to your power. You can't take away my soul either, because that would be getting rid of your own spirit."

"Oh, yes I can," the ultimate master objected, another one of those sinister smiles appearing on his face- the kind that seemed to taunt "I know something you don't know." "Because your spirit is a lot different from my spirit. We may be the same person, but we're two separate personalities."

"I can agree with you on that," Jack finally replied, staring into the cloudy abyss of the Soul Scepter. Somewhere in that little globe was Julie's spirit, along with the Xiaolin "jesters'". All he had to do was wrangle it away from himself and release that wisp back into her body. The problem was…how was he supposed to do that? He had no Shen-Gong-Wu, no Jack-bots, no working powers…no HeliPack. Somehow, he though he remembered thinking about this before.

No. That's right. I don't need all that stuff… I can do this myself. A sudden force gripped Jack's body, and in that instant, he knew what he needed to do, and how to do it. Although he wasn't exactly sure of what he was doing, when the Ultimate Master took his first stride forward, he immediately launched his attack.

A mere second later, Jack found himself careening through the air, without the aid of the Jet Bootsu, the Mantis Flip Coin, or any of the various flying Shen-Gong-Wu. He reached down in desperation, and the smooth, cool surface of some metal object pressed into his palm. Finally, his feet slammed against a carpeted surface, and he wavered a bit, getting his bearings again. Something heavy weighed down against his hands, and finally glancing down, Jack noticed, to his awe that he was holding the familiar, golden, dangerous item…the Soul Scepter! But how had he…?

His future self turned and raised a bushy eyebrow at him. "Oh…quite clever. You're already building their strategies, aren't you? Flipping over me like that to grab the scepter… But don't think I wasn't anticipating it!"

Jack stared back down at the staff, and into the swirling, ghostly world of its red orb. Flipping over me like that… He had just successfully pulled off an acrobatic flip over his future self's head, grabbing the scepter on the way over. I guess I've learned a thing or two from those Xiaolin twerps, he slowly realized.

Strangely enough, the ultimate master didn't even make a move to stop him as he rushed over past his fluttering cape, to kneel beside the soulless Julienne. Jack had no idea how to take Julie's spirit back out of the scepter and put it into her body, but simply leaned in over her body, hoping that would somehow force the spirit back into her.

As he concentrated on the staff and its abilities, imagining it releasing Julie's spirit, a warm, golden glow began to emanate from the tip. This gold sheen bathed the two of them in a bright, almost holy light. Since Jack had his eyes closed in concentration, he didn't see when a cloudy mist rolled through the glass of the red ball, and continued down through Julie's chest. Finally, when the gold screen popped out of existence, and everything was once again settled, Jack opened his eyes, to see Julie's clear, red ones staring back at him.

"…Huh?" she slowly asked. "Jack? What happened? Did I pass out?"

"I'll tell you later," Jack hurriedly replied, throwing a glance over his shoulder at the man he would become. Surprisingly, the ultimate master hadn't even objected to any of these past few events…but, still he was standing there, suspiciously, with that secretive smile curling his thin lips.

"C'mon, get up," Jack said, turning back to his future daughter. "We're at the top of the Hill Palace on a platform! We're trying to overthrow your father, remember? He's not gone yet! We've got a battle to fight!"

Julie didn't seem to be moving much. She stayed seated on the carpeted rug as much as Jack tugged at her long sleeves and tried to persuade her to get up and resume fighting. "I…I don't know," she finally replied, placing a small, pale hand on the side of her head and gently shaking it. "It's…weird. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to go on by yourself. I just…I don't feel well at all…"

Jack had no idea how it must feel to have your soul wrenched from your body, and then shoved back in again, so he excused her from the fight, and stood back up again to face his future self.

Ultimate Master Jack crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows at him, and it made him shiver to notice how alike they were.

"Metal!" Jack commanded, suddenly remembering the positions of his elemental attack. Thankfully, the bright silvery shimmer of the yin-yang plate sprang up again, behind him, and the sharp metal points tore through the rocky top layer of the platform.

"That reminds me," the ultimate master casually spoke up, jumping out of the way of the spikes. "You wanted to know how I took over the world earlier. I told you, the Soul Scepter and murder…but I left out one tiny little detail…"

Jack stepped back out of attack pose, and his face scrunched into a scowl, disgusted with his own bragging and giant ego. "I really don't need to know how you took over the world, because I'm not going to take over the world. Not if this is what will happen."

"Oh, but don't you need to know, so that you can prevent it from happening? This world doesn't just exist here, and sprang out of nowhere…it gradually began. And it all began with you. It all began there. In fact, you might not even know how far down this path you already are."

"Shut up!" Jack yelled back at himself, determined to drive out anything his future told him. "It doesn't necessarily have to be this way."

His future self raised his eyebrows once again. "Oh, really? Well, I'd like to see how exactly you react to this thought… I'll show you the real reason I was able to finally conquer the planet." With that, the ultimate master ripped off his long black-and-purple cape, and unbuttoned the top of his black, highly adorned jacket.

"What the…" Jack commented when he got a look at what was underneath. "Wh-why would I…?" He just couldn't comprehend the reasons for this revelation.

A large portion of future Jack's chest was entirely metal. He wasn't even human! The metallic shine of the iron plate blurred out and faded into a shining, dreamy memory, the pointed bursts of sunlight melting into the harsh, black, technological reality of home.

-

It was another one of those days, but this time, neither of the contradictory forces seemed to be prevailing.

No. I can't keep doing this forever. I will never be able to do this…because of my own pathetic personality.

His hands trembled as he clutched the new, insertion device. He could be holding the key to his future…to his own success in his very paled hands. They desperately clutched the digital encoding. With just one shove, everything he had always strived for could be attained, right then and there. Yes…this was the only way he could attempt to further this plan of action. If this was the side to which everything was shifting, then it was time to eliminate the other force altogether. This was easy…just like the same old, familiar entity…just passing through. It was time.

With the last of his ancient salted droplets peppering his cheeks, Jack's flaming eyes instantly narrowed. Then, finally seizing the initiative, without even knowing what would happen, he said an instant farewell to his wretched world, sliced open the spot on his chest…and with trembling hands, dripping with blood, shoved the chip inside.

-

"What?" Jack slowly pronounced the word. He was back on the platform; at least he appeared to be. Suddenly, the Vase of Viscous Visions came floating up through the carpeted floor. "You were using that Shen-Gong-Wu?" he asked, raising his bushy eyebrows. "But you didn't say…"

"I don't need to say the items' stupid names," the Ultimate Master explained. "I own all of them. Though the troops use them, they're all mine."

"So I…made myself into a cyborg?"

"Not a cyborg!" the ultimate master explained. "I simply deleted my own emotions, my own personality. I exist for the sole purpose of bringing pain and destruction to the planet and its people. I'm evil."

Jack thought about this a while longer. "If you have no emotions, if you can't even feel happy or grateful, even from hurting others…then what is the point of living?"

"Someone's got to make them suffer," the Ultimate Master retaliated. "That is my job. I have to make them suffer."

"Why?" Jack shot back. "Why do they have to be punished!"

"Because they're people, aren't they? You said yourself one day that you hate all people. You hate everyone."

"…Not everyone…" he admitted, softly to himself. This certainly was the strangest argument he'd ever had with himself. Usually these kinds of arguments remained inside his head. But suddenly, it had become a verbal battle. The one problem with this rendition was that he couldn't make this opposing voice shut up.

"Think about it," his future insisted. "You've always dreamed of ruling the world- of being the most important person on the entire planet. That's the only way you'll ever get the respect you deserve. If you take away your own personality and emotions- take away all your sense of feeling, and finally you'll be respected. You'll never have to deal with those stupid forces that try to hold you back; you'll never again feel that petty pain and loneliness, isn't that your main goal?"

Jack's heart skipped a beat…because he knew that this man before him knew everything about him. Who knew him better than himself? …And what he had been saying was exactly true. He gritted his teeth as he desperately tried to figure this all out. I don't want to be alone for the rest of my life… I want to be appreciated. …Is this really the only way? To sacrifice my own personality…

"Don't worry about being alone," the ultimate master spoke up again, almost soothingly. "You're never alone. Even in your present state, you may think of yourself as alone, but oh no, you are far from it."

Jack looked up, angrily at his future self. "How do you know if that's what I'm worrying about?"

"Dear boy," the man stated, taking a step towards him. "Of course I know what you're thinking. I'm you." He flashed a comforting smile down at him.

Jack blinked. "If you have no emotions, how come you're smiling?"

"I don't need emotions to smile, to frown, to laugh, or even cry. This amazing computer chip just makes me do these things when they're needed. You know, I think you've got a few of these things lying around in your world. Never realized their power until I used one on myself."

Jack froze. The emotion chips I put into a few of my new Jack-bots. It doesn't really make them feel emotions, but causes them to smile, laugh, frown, or cry in response to their surroundings… If I used one on myself,would itmake me do the same…

"Do you see the light now?" the ultimate master continued, glancing straight into his eyes. They were the clear, shining red of normal, organic people, rather than the plain, dry ones of his former robot counterpart. He was still human- just with no feelings, no thoughts of his own- the chip told him everything that needed to be done. "But enough about me," the ultimate master at last decided, pointing his long, caped hand away into the distance. "It's time you met your little friend. You've known her for a very long time indeed, but now she will once again reveal herself to you."

As the ultimate master continued to ramble about future stuff only he could understand, something was happening in the distance. Julie had stood up again, staring up into the sky. She suddenly screamed and held her face.

"Julie!" Jack cried, turning his head and rushing over to her side. "What happened? What did he do to you?"

"I…I don't know…" Julie stuttered. She opened her red eyes wide and blinked a few times. "It felt like there was something inside of me, and it was trying to take over…"

Jack shivered as she told him this. "What was it? Does it have something to do with your soul being taken out and put back in?"

Julie glanced slowly back at him. Her face looked strangely dark, as if there were some kind of dark ink lurking beneath her skin. "Ooooh…" she slowly said, her voice becoming scratchy and garbled. "I'm glad to see you've still got my symbols…"

Suddenly, the red pupils of Julie's eyes morphed for a moment into small, purple spirals. They changed back just as quickly, and her normal voice screamed out again as she gripped tightly to her torso.

"What's happening?" Jack cried. "You tell me what's going on!" he yelled over to his future self, who was grinning, maniacally to the sidelines. "What's wrong with Julie?"

"You ought to rephrase that question," the ultimate master responded. "Because I can just tell you- there's nothing wrong with Julie. She might feel like there's something wrong, but that's because she hasn't known about this like I have…"

As the future continued to brag at him, something began to form in the air behind him. It was the swirling, pinkish cloud of a connection between two different worlds- the portal back to the present!

This reappearance sent a shock of hope through Jack's soul…but he couldn't leave Julie's side. Something strange was happening to his innocent future daughter, and he had to be there for her. Her entire body was trembling, sometimes pieces of it flashing that horrible inky grey color.

"That staff in your hands not only has the power to take spirits and give their bodies to me," the ultimate master continued, "But it can also take a spirit…and mix it with someone else's. Haven't you ever wondered where she went in this world? She has to still be in existence, right? That was the only advantage I could get out of having a daughter… I could mix her spirit with Wuya's, and I could take her powers afterwards! All this time, there was only one thing more powerful than me- and that was Wuya, but now I have a way to conquer even the world's most powerful Heylin witch! And with that stupid dragon and Chase's potion, I'll be immortal!" And at that moment, future Jack's emotion chip told him to break out in evil laughter, the most spiteful, demonic laugh his throat had ever produced.

Jack desperately turned to Julie at his side. Was that true? Was she really…turning into Wuya? Wuya was trying to merge with her body, but the girl was putting up a good fight, driving the evil witch from complete control.

"J-J-Jack?" she slowly managed to stutter.

"What?" Jack asked, snapping to attention in concern. He stared as Julie slowly pulled her hands away from her flickering face. Still, even as her skin morphed around them, her eyes still remained ruby red.

"He wants…to use that staff on me…once I become a Heylin witch. You have to…get away. Keep him from getting a hold of it."

Jack glanced over at the swirling, psychedelic portal, hovering discreetly behind his future self's head. "But…I don't want to leave you," Jack insisted. "Especially when you're like this."

"Oh…don't worry," Julie slowly rasped forward. "Maybe…I'll see you sometime in your world…and it will be different… It all…starts…now…" Wuya almost had her now- the grey splotches were growing and becoming more solid on her face.

Jack first felt the fear inside him, and then the sadness. How could he do this to his own daughter? To use her only to obtain Wuya's powers? It was because his future self had no feelings. He had none of that "compassion" Dojo had told him about.

"You have to promise me…" Julie fought to tell him, her voice wavering as Wuya struggled to grasp that too. "…that you'll run. Run, Jack…" At last, the limitless powers of the evil Heylin witch burst through the girl's defensive barrier.

"RUN!" Julie shrieked, as her skin became entirely death grey, and her hands became long, sharp claws. Her eyes were the exact same wide, yellow-and-red spiraled bulbs as Jack's goggles and Wuya's ghostly eyes.

And at last, he complied. Hugging the sparkling Soul Scepter to his torn jacket and bony chest, Jack bolted from his position and targeted the swirling portal behind himself.

"Perfect," Ultimate Master Jack commented, producing a dark blast, which he charged up in his hands for a moment. "Come here, little boy. Bring me my new powers…"

Jack narrowed his eyes. "Get out of the way!" he at last yelled to his evil self, and when the man released his dark blast, a shining screen, like the one that had been around them earlier sprang up around him, deflecting the blast back to the carpeted platform. Jack simply jumped past the destruction and continued to make a beeline for the portal. He didn't think he'd ever run so fast in his life, except maybe at the Facist camp. The bright, mixing colors were just ahead of him. It would only be a few more minutes.

His future self and Julie-Wuya aimed their blasts at him, but they were too late now. The portal was actually floating a few feet away from the edge of the platform…but that wouldn't stop him now.

Disregarding the long drop it would be if he missed, Jack sprang from the edge of the platform, and clutching the Soul Scepter tightly to his body, felt as the air rushed around him. There were beautiful, pastel, shining colors all around him, and as he continued to hurtle through time and space, closed his eyes.

He'd finally run away from the evil of the future…and now his destiny was waiting for him wherever he landed. Jack closed his blazing red eyes and entrusted his life to this new force. Perhaps this one would not abandon him.