Chapter 74: Planning Out...
Her hand still stretched out, Kimiko moved toward the ashes.Raimundo had already stopped moving around piece of wood, when he noticed Kimiko, looking slightly worried at some dirt on the ground. That was what it looked like to Raimundo. So he didn't stop her. So unobservant...
"Are you alright Kimiko? The dirt isn't going to do anything..." he mumbled, taking a step toward her. Kimiko still didn't look up; instead she placed one finger tip on the ashes. Nothing happened. No explosions, or anything. Seemed kind of... odd.
Now if she just brushed off some dirt she would see it. "Kimiko?" She remained silent, blowing away dust. "Answer...me?" Raimundo said, almost questioning. Then she saw...
Glass. There in the dirt. Wasn't that a bit weird? Kimiko raised her face to Raimundo, and she pointed at the glass. Raising an eyebrow, he rplied, "It's nothing to be pointing at, Kim," He bent down and tried to pry it up from the ground.
With Raimundo saying this, it caught the attention of the rest of the team.
"Raimundo, what are you trying to lift up?" asked Clay, wandering over to Raimundo.
"It's some sort of glass thing that Kimiko found."
"The thing isn't just glass. We never had any glass in the Temple that looked like that." Kimiko said.
Omi leaped out from the corner and put his hands on his hips. "Glass cannot hurt us! Chase Young must have planted it here to kill us! Leave it to the Xiaolin Dragon!"
Very modest. A snort came from Raimundo.
"And exactly why would Chase Young put a glass thing in the ground? What's is going to do? Eat us alive? Hope so!" said Raimundo. He stopped trying to pull it up from the ground. Raimundo started to kick it. Jumping to the next solutions. "You know; Kimiko, I think it's round like a soccer ball. Why don't we get a look at it then?" He held up his finger.
Guess... what?
Wind was his answer again. A gust went past everyone; full of soot. In the ground it went, and Raimundo smiled victoriously. Meanwhile, everyone else in the group shuddered. There he went again.
Raimundo had just done something careless, and if indeed this was planned by Chase Young; then they'd be dead.
But they couldn't tell Raimundo. The deed was done. And the thing would fly into the air...
And it did.
A shining, transparent, glass orb. Flying into the air, it landed right in front of Raimundo.
Everyone froze for a few minutes. Nothing moved, and Raimundo was about to crack up. He thought the orb was very funny to laugh at...
Still, no one moved, and they stood staring at the orb, while it started to form a picture. Who was standing there, in the orb? It was Chase Young, pacing back and forth in front of his throne, not even looking up at the Xiaolin Warriors. Would he see them?
"So, the Xiaolin Warriors are planning to rebuild their Temple?" Chase Young said to no one in particular.
Watching him mumble to himself was even petrifying.
"They'll fail. I'll burn it down again, or I'll make someone else do it for me. The interesting part is... That I can take their Shen Gong Wu, and they'll be hopeless. That's where they draw their power from. And Master Fung. I'm surprised they don't watch over their Master. He could easily be taken down. They probably don't even know where he is now." The bad thing was that he was speaking the truth. Master Fung wasn't in sight, and if the Xiaolin Warriors didn't have Shen Gong Wu; then they would have not gone far.
Chase Young's cat-like eyes flickered to the gaze of everyone. It was like he could see them right now. But that would be stupid.
They would be able to hear all his plans, then the same would apply for the other side as well.
"One thing I need to eliminate is the 'love' between all of them. What happens if I get rid of their strongest emotion toward the people they like most? I'm sure good will come out of that,"
Snickering, he quit pacing.
"Then again, if I did that then our favorite little couple will be dead. They pratically live on love. Which is something you can't depend on,"
And which favorite little couple was he talking about?
On the other side of the orb, the group of Xiaolin Warriors sat down on the ashes. How long would Chase take before he realized they were looking?
"The bond will be broken," Chase said, "And I will get that soup from that dragon, who always seems to slip out of my grasp. The Warriors will not finish with their building, and I will win once again. Maybe they'll decide to join my side and surrender to the one that is winning?"
Snapping his fingers, Chase Young began to laugh out loud, tossing back his head.
Jack would have been proud, if he was still on the evil side...
"Who knows? They could be watching right now, taking everything in, and making it become a bigger problem than it already is." Chase closed his eyes and silenced himself, the orb went blank.
But everyone had a sneaking suspicion that he was still laughing about them.
Cringing, Kimiko hugged her knees to her chest. "Do you think he was speaking the truth, Raimundo?" He shrugged and glanced up at the sky. They had better hurry... The sun was down, but no one could tell from the thick mist shrouding the sky.
"Well... We can do it. Since the sun won't be beating down on us... It'll be easier."
Kimiko frowned and looked up as well.
Did the stars answer her yet? Did everything want her to lead a terrible life? How come she had to suffer for everyone? And a child was on the way too...
A few hours later...
How come everything had to turn out so complicated? The Temple was at least made out of about 1,000,000 bricks or something like that! Kimiko groaned and thought of Raimundo's words of wisdom. But that only made it worse. Raimundo was too happy go lucky!
Whatever she was going to rebuild, it was going to be burned down again, by Chase. So what was the point? But if the building was made entirely out of bricks, then it couldn't be burnt down. The only problem would be... The Temple would be so hard and airy!
All her enthusiasm was gone now. Kimiko fell to the ground, and she glanced around her.
No one else was stopping.
They all knew it was hopeless, but why go on? Raimundo's ears pricked up. He could hear her thoughts.
"Kimiko, don't think that." he said, turning his head in her direction. "You're thinking like a negative person. It seems like you're criticizing life, love, or death."
That seemed to be the most intelligent that thing Raimundo has ever said... Kimiko gave him a stare while she brushed back the hair covering her face.
"What do you mean Raimundo?" she asked.
"It's like you're talking about love. Let's say you love someone, they break your heart, and you never want to be with someone again. Then you never use your heart, and eventually you die, and you say to yourself: There's no use trying, and everything will be broken in the end. But that's not true Kimiko. Miracles can happen, and then we'll have our happy ending." When though?...
Such a long speech from Raimundo... Kimiko sighed and got back up. Well... She hated when he was right, but this time she would make a small exception.
"Thanks." she muttered, before she picked up another brick.
Raimundo didn't answer, but he still couldn't hide that smug look on his face. He loved being right.
Kimiko, not grinning; tried to think all this over.
'Chase Young could have placed that orb there on purpose, but what he said sounded very convincing, and he wasn't that careless! Unlike SOME people...' Kimiko thought, giving Raimundo a side glance.
'Then why are we doing this? Raimundo already explained all that I needed to hear, and I'm not satisfied. Am I just thinking this way, to upset myself?'
Kimiko shook her head and tried to force a smile on her face. Why was she thinking like this? She was much more cheery than this! Unless... Chase Young was trying to eat away at her will power. Was he trying to?
She couldn't tell, and even Master Fung didn't know.
Though he couldn't help them in the first place. They were Dragons, and they had to think for themselves. In the beginning, Master Fung had to admit that he wasn't that much of a help. He shouldn't have been called Master either. It was Omi who over powered him. Who out ranked him.
And he was growing old.
Fung wouldn't die from Chase Young; he would die from old age. And the next day, he did.