Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown.

I stared at the man in front of me. Was it true? Had the others been captured already? I had to find out. I stood up, and started walking towards the man, but Chase pushed me back into my seat.

"I'll see to this before you," he sneered. He started walking off, but I didn't let him stop me. They were my friends. I should be able to see them. I walked behind him carefully, and when we arrived to wherever we were going, I gasped.

Omi, Clay, Rai, and Dojo were chained to the wall. There were no gags, so when they saw me, they started yelling.

"Kimiko, you are alright!"

"Why are you here?"

"Where's Spicer?"

"Can you send your prisoners some food? I'm turning to scale and bones here!"

Chase turned and looked at me. I expected him to snap his fingers, and start fighting off jungle cats, but the snap never came. Instead, he grinned and said, "That's why I like you. You don't let people push you around."

That caused a lot of problems. One, being that the burst of blabbing started again.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Kimi, you're not telling us something. Why does Chase like you?"

"Let me go, you evil scoundrel, and I promise to kick your butt really hard! Don't you lay a finger on Kimiko!"

"Hello? I'm starving here!"

Chase signaled for silence. They didn't dare disobey. They were in enough trouble as it was. He turned to me, and asked, "Do you want to give them the pleasure of an explanation, or will you allow me?"

I glared at him, and mumbled, "I'll do it," and turned to my friends. My poor, and currently, helpless friends. I took a deep breath, and started.

At the end of my story, everyone looked at me curiously. I completely skipped the part about Chase trying to marry me. They didn't need to know that yet. Plus, I hadn't the heart to tell them. Chase could, but I couldn't.

Clay was the first to say anything. "So we was right! You did join up with Spicer!"

I shook my head. "I told you. It was the ice cream! Plus, he saved me. Even if it did only postpone my capture." I cast a mean glance at Chase.

Omi looked at me suspiciously. "There is something crabby about your story."

"Fishy!" shouted Rai.

"Yes, that as well. Why did Chase Young want to capture you in the first place?"

Great. Trust Omi to notice the one thing I wanted to leave out.

"Uh . . . I can't tell you," like they were really going to let me off the hook that easily.

"Come on, Kimiko. We're your friends. You can tell us anything!" Omi smiled as he said that. It hurt to know I was about to wipe that smile off as if it were on a dry erase board.

"Fine. If you really want to know. I'll tell you. Chase wants me to marry him so he can take over the world. If I don't marry him, he'll kill Rai and Clay, because they're of no use to him. And the reason why he has to marry to rule the world, is because a girl has to either be the ruler, or the spouse of the ruler." I waited for it all to sink in.

Dojo shouted, "That's sick!"

Chase stepped forward, and put his hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off, and moved away from him. He looked at me, impressed. "So, have you made your decision? Are you going to accept my generous proposal or what?"

I looked at Rai, Omi, Clay, and Dojo, and then at Chase. Finally, I came up with a clever answer to buy me time. "You said I have one day to answer. So, I'll give you my answer tomorrow. Now, if you please, I would like to return to my cell. I'm tired of looking at you."

"Follow my cats. They'll escort you to your room. I expect your answer tomorrow morning."

(-)

I followed the cats to the cell. One jumped up onto the wall, and the door opened. Jack was pacing the room anxiously. I ran into the room and pulled him into a hug immediately. It felt nice to know I could trust him.

Jack stared at me with disbelief on his face. "So they're captured? Our only hope of getting out of here has been captured."

I just nodded. I had talked way too much for one day. I needed to sleep. It had been such a long day. I needed to empty my head of thoughts.

Jack understood. He climbed into bed, and wrapped his arms around me, keeping me warm, and making me feel a bit better. After I had my head comfortably resting on his chest, I fell asleep. My decision already made.

(-)

I woke up around seven. I was still wrapped in Jack's arms. Or I thought they were Jack's. I opened my eyes to see that my head was on somebody else's chest. The clothing was different. It wasn't Jack's trench coat. I adjusted my head upwards. As soon as I saw that face, I sat bolt right up, and screamed.

I had been cuddling up next to Chase Young!

(-)

A/N: I got some more bad news. Well, depends on how you look at it. I can't update on either Thursday or Friday. Since I start school next week, we're doing our annual theme park back to school stuff. This year, we're going to Kings Dominion instead of the awesome Busch Gardens(Yeah, I can go, because I live in Virginia, and there's one in Williamsburg!) So yeah.

Thank you my reviewers! StephanieFan, Meggie Grotto, firewu, animecrazy1017, Joey, tamerterra, SpicerFreak, and Master Monk.