Finally, a new chapter, I usually write chapters all in one go, so I thought that maybe that was the reason they weren't very well written, so I wrote this in several stages, which should hopefully make a difference. It's also my longest chapter yet…

Chapter 5 Enter the Darkness

Jack stood, unable to move as he watched Kimiko's slender body fall to the ground, her eyes scrunched up and her chest heaving as she tried to scream, yet not a sound came out of her mouth.
He watched, unable to so much as blink as she sat on the floor looking as if she was howling in pain.
Looking closer at her form, he noticed the thin trickles of blood rolling out of her ears.
He wanted to scream, wanted to run towards her, to help her, but he found he couldn't move, he heard Wuya's loud chanting, a strange blackened music ringing through his ears.

Jack watched the mist fly out of the chest, and looked on in horror as it flew towards Kimiko.
Her soft black hair was falling around her limp body in disarray, the outlines of her body were shrouded in a thick, dark mist, which seemed to be seeping into her every pore, her once clear porcelain skin turning a shade of dull grey.
He felt his heart wrench as he remembered the look of pure horror that he saw in Kimiko's eyes simply moments beforehand, the way she couldn't struggle, didn't move.
His mouth grew dry as he tried to swallow down the lump that had formed in his throat, and he tried to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill from his eyes.

He closed his eyes, and tried to forget the stark image before him, of purity being corrupted by evil, darkness taking old over light. Through the darkness of his eyelids he could still see her, his mind replaying the scene before him. The look on Kimiko's face as she tried to cover her ears from some unknown sound, the silent tears that escaped from her wide eyes as she saw the unfurling mist before her twist and transform, before taking an almost solid shape.

He remembered how her glistening eyes suddenly clamped shut, as if her mind was trying to block something out of her head.
The mist slowly begun to disperse, and Kimiko's eyes shot open, and a fleeting look of pain shone through her eyes, before they turned blank, the sparkle of life had left her eyes, leaving them blank and unfeeling.

He had shivered as he saw those eyes, the eyes he usually saw with an accompanying smile, - merited never smiling at him - so empty as they stared up at him.
He saw something stir then, in the depths of her eyes, before her bloody body fell to the ground.

Jack took in a ragged breath, trying to force the image from his mind, when he heard a low chuckle coming from the other side of the room.
He opened his eyes, his vision slightly blurred as he sought for the source of the unwelcome sound.
His sight settled on a purple blur, floating above ground on he other side of the room, Wuya.
He clamped his eyes shut, to let the tears fall, and looked up again; his sight improved enough to see the clear smirk on Wuya's face as the volume of her laughter increased.

As he watched Wuya throw her head back in merciless laughter Jack began to shake.
His eyes, still wet with tears shone in anger.
Wuya seemed to notice this change, and reduced he laughter into a deep, taunting chuckle.

'What's the matter Jackie? Too late?'
Her lip curled up into a sneer.

'Even when you try to do something 'good' for once it all goes wrong, doesn't it Jackie.
Everything you touch, everything you try to create, it all gets destroyed boy, and it is destroyed by you.
You are pathetic.
Useless.
A snivelling little brat who only cares for himself, and decidedly falls for the first little whore he comes across.'
Everything you touch, everything you try to create, it all gets destroyed boy, and it is destroyed by you.

Through her little speech Jack's eyes had narrowed to slits, the rage inside him far surpassing any other emotion, he completely forgot about Kimiko, where he was, what had happened in the last few minutes.
All he could see was Wuya, taunting him as she had been doing endlessly for the past few months, all he could feel was the feral urge for revenge, and the burning hatred inside, at Wuya's last comment he snapped.
'I DID NOT DESTROY KIMIKO!
I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS MESS YOU HAVE CREATED,
EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE CREATED, EVERYTHING I TOUCHED, IT WAS ALL DESTROYED BY YOU!'
Jack's voice changed, becoming deadly quiet.
'No matter what I did you never respected me, always taunted me.
I never really noticed at the time, but looking back I can see you've always hated me, you have never taken me seriously, you were just jerking me along on a string the whole time.'
Jack's words were full of hate, his face showing every emotion his words were incapable of carrying.
'No matter what happens, I will not let you take Kimiko, I will not let you destroy something that was never mine to begin with.'

By this time Wuya had ceased her chuckling, and was simply watching the fleeting emotions fly across Jack's face.
She scowled, the boy was taking himself seriously for once, and there had not been a shadow of doubt in his words.
Wuya smiled, this could prove to be very interesting.

qpqp

Clay sighed, ever since they had lost the shen-gong-wu the dragons motivation had been down to a minimum. Even Omi had lost most of his enthusiasm, occasionally busting out with the odd 'Eureka!' before shaking his head again in frustration and going back to his brooding.
Clay was sitting in the training area outside the temple, absentmindedly scraping away at a wooden carving, which although started out looking mildly like a small horse, had been scraped away into a small shapeless block.
He looked back at what he was doing, seeing the mess he had made of his carving and let it drop to the floor.
As boredom took over he decided to head back to the temple entrance, where he knew Raimundo and Omi were sparring.
Clay approached the temple to a sight of Omi being thrown backwards onto the floor by a gust of wind.
'Come on Omi, at least try to concentrate a little, this is getting a little boring.'
Raimundo had a tired expression on his face, not dissimilar to the look on Omi's face.

Omi picked himself up and greeted Clay with a nod.
The group stood around in a somewhat awkward silence, no one made an effort to speak, and after a few seconds of the mindless silence Omi's head jerked up.
'What is that?'

Raimundo and Clay also looked up, each with a frown on their face.

'That's not good' Stated Raimundo.

'Can y'all feel it? It's as if the darkness is closing in around us, I -'
Clay was interrupted by the sound of Jack Spicer's voice, echoing out of the temple doors.

Each of the dragons assumed a look of determined anger on their faces before simultaneously running into the temple.
The group reached the temple centre only seconds later, the sight of a somewhat rough looking Jack Spicer glaring at a smiling Haelin witch met their eyes, before looking behind them, seeing Kimiko's form lying limply on the floor.

'JACK SPICER! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING HERE?
WHAT DID YOU DO TO KIMIKO?'

Jack curled his upper lip up at hearing Raimundo's voice, but did not break eye contact with Wuya.

Just as Jack was about to open his mouth to tell Raimundo just how much he wasn't wanted, he noticed Kimiko silently pick herself up off the ground.
She stood in one graceful movement, and brushed the dirt off her shoulders, her back to the room.

'Kim! Are you alright? What's going on?'
Clay said, unsure of himself.
Kimiko began to laugh, although she laughed with a low, dark voice.
Her laughter got louder, and was joined by Wuya's dark cackle, both of them in a darkly perfect harmony.

'K-Kim?'

The laughter quickly died down, and Kimiko span around to face the rest of the room.
Everyone in the room apart from Wuya and Jack let out a gasp.
Kimiko's usually slate blue eyes had changed into the sinister shade of blood red.

Kimiko's face twisted into an evil smile.
'Ah! I see we have a little audience here, hmph, the Spicer kid, I've heard a lot about you,
And you three brats must be the Xiaolin Dragons. What a joke!'
'Come to join in the fun? Play the games, sing the songs?'
Kimiko paused to sneer at the dragons.
'We are a happy bunch today aren't we?'
Omi took on a slightly confused expression.
'You…you… Kimiko?'
Kimiko let out a gleeful cackle.
'Oh how rude of me, let me introduce myself. I am Zeloth of Garett, the only other Haelin witch to survive the cleansing of the first world, all those years ago.
I myself have been imprisoned in that dear little box for uncounted centuries.'
At this point Zeloth took on a slightly glazed look, as if remembering her hated years imprisoned in a wooden chest. The look passed in moments, the familiar twisted sneer returning to her face.
'I was but one step away from destroying the world the last time I was free, but I was hindered by a rare mortal and imprisoned.
Lucky for you that mortal is long dead, so we get to have the fun of finishing the game.'
'I Zeloth, will rule the world with my power! I will cause eternal darkness and become Queen of the earth!
I will-'
An infuriated Wuya cut off Zeloth's rant.
'WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'I'?
IF NOT FOR ME YOU WOULD STILL BE ROTTING IN THAT BOX!
You seem to have forgotten it is I you owe your life to.'
Zeloth appeared slightly amused.
'And you seemed to have forgotten that I am the one with a solid body.'
'How dare you even think of defying me! You-'

The two witches continued their bickering while Jack and the three dragons watched on, each with a look of disbelief on their faces.

As Wuya got more and more enraged things began to fly off the shelves, smashing onto the surrounding floor and walls.
The pair were obviously too absorbed in their argument to notice their surroundings.

Raimundo couldn't take it any more.
'Jack what the hell has been going on down here?
What part did you have to play in all of this?
Was it you who led them here?'

Jack turned to Raimundo with a half-hearted glare.

'What can I say?
Not my fault, Wuya disowned me anyway, I got here too late…'
The watching dragons were surprised to see a look of regret linger over Jack's face.
The emotion was quickly replaced by a stoic determination.
'But everything will be fine.
After all the things I've been through with Wuya, this is going to be one match I will not lose.'

Raimundo scoffed
'What are you talking about? Even when you talk in short sentences you make no sense! Is this why you usually spend so
much time gloating and laughing? Just because you can't actually construct a sentence?.'

Clay had watched Jack as Raimundo had taken his digs, and was perturbed to see that Jack hadn't defended himself or fought back at all. He decided he knew enough of what was going on to make a decision.
'Rai? Hold it.'
Raimundo gave Clay a glare, but did as he was told.
'I've decided that we should make a truce. From wh-'
'WHAT?'
Both Jack and Raimundo stared wide-eyed at Clay, disbelief clearly written all over their faces.

'A truce with our sworn enemy?
The guy who has been at Wuya's side since day one?
Are you completely OUT OF YOUR MIND?'
Jack said nothing, he was watching Clay, still blinking owlishly in disbelief.

'I'm not sure whether any of you guys noticed, but I think it's clear that Jack wouldn't do anything to hurt Kimiko.
I mean, remember what happened on the last showdown?'

Jack scowled at the ground, blushing.

'Yeah, thanks for bringing that up' Raimundo frowned.
'I still don't see why we should become friends all of a sudden he-'

'If Jack is serious about helping then I see no reason why he should not. We will do this for Kimiko.'
Omi's voice rung true through Raimundo's ears.
'For Kimiko…'
Raimundo nodded slowly.
Jack scowled.
Although it made sense, he still despised them all, though he was beginning to understand them a little more.
He stood, thinking through the proposition before him.
After a few moments he looked up at Clay and nodded.
'Alright, but only until we get Kimiko back.'
Clay gave him a grim smile and offered his hand.
Jack raised an eyebrow before shaking on the truce.
Raimundo watched them shake on the deal, but was still unsure about the whole idea.
This was Jack Spicer, the boy bent on world domination, could they really trust him with this?
Raimundo had no option other than to agree, the decision had already been made, he sure hoped Clay knew what he was doing.

There was a sudden silence, and the newly united dragons looked up to see that Zeloth and Wuya had stopped bickering.
Wuya had gone into a Shen-gong-wu trance.
'Shen-gong-wu, the shadow of fear, that should be fun.'

Zeloth let out a dark giggle.
'It seems the games have begun.'
Zeloth left the room with an insane cackle, her whoops of laughter quickly fading into the distance.
Wuya shook her head, it seemed that being locked in a chest for a few centuries could reek havoc with ones sanity.

Dojo slithered through the doorway, an unusually pale shade of green.
'Dojo-' Omi started.
'Yeah, I know kid, I was listening. You gotta get to that Shen-gong-wu fast, you can't risk losing another one.

Jack was already pulling the start-up cable on his Jet-pack..

'No, it'll be quicker if you hitch a ride with us kid, I don't like it, but…'
Dojo went quiet, and looked at the space where Zeloth had been standing only minutes before.

'What are y'all waitin' for? We got a Shen-gong-wu to catch'.

Dojo immediately took on his dragon form, and Omi, Clay and Raimundo hopped on.

'Come on Spicer, if you want to help you're gonna have to do it our way.'

Jack frowned, and raked his hands through his hair.

For Kimiko…

Jack quickly jumped onto Dojo, who promptly rose from the floor, and manoeuvred himself out of the doorway, through the corridor and out into the open sky.

Ah, it feels as if my head is floating, where am I, all I can see is black…
Surrounded by darkness, where is everyone?
I don't remember… what happened to me…the pain, the noise it was! it was nothing...
My head feels so light, I think, I think I'm going to faint…
But… Jack… where am I… what happened to Jack…
All I can remember is… Jack…
R & R Please folks, I'm pretty happy with that chapter…