Most of you did not review for a long while! Reviews are the only thing keeping the author writing her fics and living happily! You want dead author? No? Then you REVIEW!

I still think that some characters here are OOC, mainly Valmont...

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Chapter 8: The Meng Hsie Pendant

Shendu carried Julia to a high and abandoned building. It was actually in good shape, except for the last floor, that was all destroyed. Julia glanced around herself.

"What's this place?"

"It's your father's old HQ. It was the only place that I could find. Now be quiet while I continue my research.", he said grabbing the three books that he had took from Uncle's shop and reading them. Julia walked around and found a room with a telephone. She approached of it and saw that it was still working. She took a piece of paper from her pocket and dialed the number that was written in it.

~/~/~

"Uncle, did you already find out which book has been stolen?", Jackie asked coming in the library.

"Yes, and it wasn't only one book, but three books.", Uncle replied. The telephone began to ring.

"I answer!", Tohru said going downstairs.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Can I speak to Jade, please?"

"Tohru frowned. For some strange reason, that voice looked very familiar.

"Uhn... Who's calling?", he asked.

"Julia. Look, could you call her already? I'm in a hurry here."

Tohru sighed. The way she talked also seemed extremely familiar. Maybe Jade could say who that Julia was.

"Jade!", he called. She quickly went downstairs, with Jack.

"Yes?"

"It's for you. She said that her name was Julia. Who's she, after all?", he wanted to know.

"A friend.", Jade answered. Tohru just looked at her in suspicion.

"Friend? Here in San Francisco?", he asked. Jade never had any friend in America, and the fact that she has a friend now was really very strange.

"Uh... Yeah. I think I had luck.", she answered nervously as if she knew exactly what he was thinking about and took the phone. When Tohru opened his mouth to say something, Uncle yelled from the library.

"Tohru! Come here and bring tea to Uncle!"

Tohru sighed and gave one more suspicious glance to Jade before heading to the kitchen. Jade sighed in relieve and frowned at Jack.

"Go away!", she demanded and Jack snapped angry, and began to go upstairs.

"Alright. I can hear her conversation with the extension. I bet that she doesn't even know that this phone has an extension.", he murmured to himself smirking.

"Hello?", Jade answered when she made sure that nobody was around.

"Finally! Jade, you won't believe, but that cute dragon wants me to stay with him!", Julia said happily and Jade almost dropped the telephone.

"Uh... 'cute' dragon? You're not talking about..."

"Shendu!"

"Are you nuts?!", Jade asked in a loud tone, getting Tohru's attention.

"But-"

"No 'but'! Don't you know how he can be dangerous? You have to get away from there right now and-", Jade stopped when seeing that Tohru was watching her.

"Oh, you really don't understand! For all my life I heard stories about Chinese legends related to dragons and about how my father and his enforcers had an extraordinary life with demons and magic stuff... I always wanted that to happen to me too.", Julia explained.

"But, Julia... Aren't you afraid of dying?", Jade asked in a low voice, trying not to care about Tohru's suspicious stare.

"Of course not. Besides, that doesn't matter. Who would miss me anyway?"

"I would! We are friends, aren't we?"

"Sure, but you don't have to worry about me."

"What about your father?", Jade tried again. Julia was silent for a while.

"He doesn't care about me. I have to go now."

, she said dryly and hanged up. Jade was thoughtful for a while. It wasn't possible that Julia was angry at her father just because he didn't want her to stay at her home. Something more serious must have happened.

Jade also hanged up and raised her glanced just to see that Tohru, Jackie and Uncle were staring at her seriously. Then she noticed that maybe her conversation had been very strange.

"Jade, who's Julia and what were you two talking about?", Jackie asked. When Jade opened her mouth to answer, the telephone rang again. Jade stretched her arm to answer it, but Jackie moved her away.

"No, I answer it. Hello?... Oh, just a minute.", Jackie said turning to face Jade.

"We talk about it later. Now go to your room.", he ordered.

"What? Don't you think I'm kind of grown to be grounded?", Jade asked but before everybody's serious glances, she lowered her head defeated.

"Oh, alright...", she said in a low voice as she went upstairs.

After some hours, Jade got tired of waiting and found strange that nobody had appeared to ask about Julia. She decided to go downstairs and saw everyone gathered. Jackie turned to face her.

"Jade. How good that you came. I was going to call you now. We have news for you. A good one and two bad ones."

"Uh... Could you tell me the good one first?", she asked and Jackie nodded.

"Sure. It's that Viper phoned us and said that she's coming back."

"Really? Cool!", Jade said smiling, but then was serious again.

"But that means that one of the bad news is that I have to leave, right?", she asked.

"Uhn... Yes...", Jackie admitted.

"And the other bad news is that you are going to be in a big trouble if you don't tell us about that Julia.", he continued crossing his arms.

"But I already said that she's just a friend!"

"Since when you think it is a good idea to be a criminal's daughter's friend?", he asked and Jade flinched.

"What... do you mean?"

"Stop pretending. We all know that Julia is a criminal's daughter.", he said and Jade made a surprise face.

"How do you know that?"

"Jack has heard your conversation with Julia by using the extension and told us everything he knew about her.", Tohru answered.

"Now there's an extension here?", she asked even more surprised and glared at Jack.

"Damn! It's all your fault...", she muttered.

~/~/~

"Finally, I found out!", Shendu announced triumphant and Julia approached of him.

"What did you find out?", she asked.

"The spell to free my siblings.", he answered.

"Do you mean there'll be more? Cool!"

"We have to find a pendant called Meng Hsie and combine its power with the Pan Ku box. Besides, I found out that the pendant does not just open portals, but it can also create portals. With it, I can open all the portals at the same place. Then we don't have to travel to each portal.

~/~/~

"Ok, now... Let's do it calmly... We have to tell him slowly.", Finn said nervously to his friends, who just nodded.

"Very slowly...", Chow repeated uneasy as the elevator arrived at the fifteenth floor and they left. They walked slowly along the corridor and then finally reached their boss's office.

"Well, here we go.", Finn said swallowing before opening the door. Valmont was seated in his chair in front of his desk and looked completely confused. He stood up quickly as soon as he saw the four enforcers and approached of them.

"What happened here? Where were you? Where is Julia? Why were the windows and the door open?", he asked uneasy and the enforcers stepped back.

"C-Calm down... Relax, Big V...", Finn said and Valmont drew a deep breath. He sat down again and looked impatiently at them. His annoyed glance was enough to them to understand that it would be better if they hurried.

"Uhn... It's that... we were... in a pub, relaxing...", Finn started.

"Then we saw a figure moving up there.", Ratso continued pointing upward.

"And when he came closer, we saw that he has returned... and...", Finn said and Valmont raised a brow.

"Who?", Valmont asked. Hak Foo sighed impatiently and pushed Finn and the others so that they shut up.

"Enough! If you take too long to tell him, we will never find them!", he snapped and Valmont stood up again.

"To find who?"

"In other words, your daughter was kidnapped by Shendu and he took her to who-knows-where with the Pan Ku box.", Hak Foo explained and initially Valmont could not say anything, but just stared at him, pale and trying to convince himself that this was impossible. Finn cleared his throat.

"Her... He probably wants to free his siblings...", Finn added. Valmont stuttered trying to say something, anything, to keep his self-control.

"We tried to follow Shendu to rescue Julia, but now he has the power of the talismans...", Chow said shrugging and they could feel Valmont's shock turning to panic.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! JULIAAAAAA!!!!", he yelled and left running.

"I said that we should have told the story slowly!", Finn complained to Hak Foo, who just crossed his arms and left the room after Valmont.

~/~/~

"So, where's that pendant?", Julia asked while leafing through a book looking for a picture of it.

"I don't know... I still have to research that...", Shendu answered looking tired. He didn't like to research, that was more like Tso Lan...

"Shendu...", Julia called looking in surprise at a picture that she has just found and Shendu approached of her. Julia pointed at the book.

"Is this the Meng Hsie pendant?", she asked and the demon didn't understand why she was so surprised with that.

"Yes, it is.", he answered shortly. Julia smiled and turned to face him.

"I know where this pendant is!", she declared and Shendu stared at her not quite believing.

"It is at my home. My mother was an archaeologist, and one day she found that pendant during an excavation and thought that it was very beautiful. Then, instead of giving it to the museum, she gave it to my father as a present!", she explained.

"I want to see that.", he said and grabbed her, and flew outside the window heading to the Dark Hand HQ.

~/~/~

"I think nobody's here...", Julia remarked glancing around herself. Shendu took his human form so that he could fit in the apartment. Jade turned to face him and smiled.

"You're really cute when you are in that human form.", she said and Shendu snorted in despise.

"Just find the Meng Hsie pendant already.", he ordered. She nodded and hurried to her father's room.

She remembered very well of where it was. She knelt down to open a drawer of a closet and smiled pleased and immediately finding the pendant inside a box decorated with diamonds. Inside the box there was a photo of her with her parents. She observed the photo thoughtfully and decided to keep it with her. Julia grabbed the pendant and ran back to Shendu.

"I found it! It's this pendant, isn't it?", she asked showing the pendant and Shendu stared at it a bit surprised.

"Yes, it is... Tell me, where did your mother find that?", he wanted to know. The demon felt like the pendant was familiar, but he couldn't say why.

"It was in Africa, I think it was close to the Mt. Kilimanjaro. But why?", she asked and Shendu smirked bitterly.

"I see... Now I remember", he murmured and Julia raised a brow curiously.

"Remember what?"

"It's not of your business. Let's get out of here.", he said taking the pendant and hung it on his neck.

"Where are we going?"

"To the South Pole.", he answered beginning to leave, but Julia didn't move.

"Are you going to take me there... flying?"

"Yes."

"But how are you going to take all those ingredients?", she asked and Shendu stopped. Indeed, he couldn't take all that, even if they kept the ingredients in suitcases. Julia smiled in victory.

"Let's go by plane. What about one of the planes in our base? It's close to here.", she suggested.

"But who is going to pilot?", Shendu asked.

"Did you forget that all the Dark Hand members live at this building? We are going to visit our personal pilot.", she replied smirking and leaving the apartment.

~/~/~

"Why it was me who had to come here? Damn, it should have been Ratso. Can't they see that I'm already very tired after everything that had happened?", Finn complained alone. Valmont was preparing an equipment in order to track all the movements of Section 13. That was possible thanks to Julia's mother, who had been a spy in Section 13. However, it was lacking an important piece and Finn had been ordered to look for it.

He continued muttering and only stopped when the elevator arrived and he saw Julia with a blond young man who was holding tightly the pilot of the Dark Hand.

"Julia...?"

"Finn? What are you doing here?", Julia asked.

"What I am doing here?! What are YOU doing here? We thought that you had been kidnapped by Shendu!", Finn said and glanced at the man in suspicious.

"Finn, don't worry about me. I'm fine. You see, I wasn't kidnapped, I ran away.", she said and Finn didn't understand what she meant.

"But... your father is very worried about you!", he tried again and Julia snorted in despise, leaving the building with Shendu and the pilot, who seemed to understand absolutely nothing.

"My father just cares about himself and his precious money.", she said and when they left the building, Julia turned to face Finn again.

"When you see my father again, tell him that I hate him.", she said coldly.

"Wait, Julia!", Finn yelled and ran outside the building, but when he got there, Julia and the two men had already disappeared.

~/~/~

"Viper!", Jade said happily when seeing her arriving at Section 13.

"Jade! So good to see you again!", she said and the two hugged each other.

"What are you doing in San Francisco?", Viper asked and before Jade could answer, Jackie appeared with Captain Black.

"Causing trouble, as usual.", Jackie said sarcastically and he and Viper kissed each other.

"What happened this time?", Viper asked playfully, obviously she had no idea of what had happened.

"She just made friends with a criminal girl who has freed Shendu and stolen the talismans.", he replied glancing severely at Jade. Viper's expression immediately became serious.

"Dad!", Jack called as he came running and Viper was happy in seeing him, though she was still concerned about the situation.

"Jack!", she said kneeling down to hug him.

"Mom! How good that you came back!"

"What is it?", Jackie asked.

"Uncle said that he wants to talk with you now. He prepared a sensor and found the power of the talismans.", Jack said pointing at the laboratory and everyone hurried to there.

"Uncle! What did you find out?", Jackie asked as soon as he came in.

"Jackie, the sensor indicates that Shendu is going to the South Pole."

"South Pole? What does he want there?", Jade asked.

"I don't know... But we cannot stay here just waiting to see it.", Uncle said gloomily.

*****

*snort* I know that the word "sensor" should be substituted by "locator spell", but... oh well...

Kyahhh!! I just saw "J2: Rise of the Dragons" screenshots!!! *gasp* WHO is Drago's mother?! He's so... so... strange! Now I understand what people said to me. He really looks like a super villain! And why does he wear so many clothes? He's a demon, isn't he??? And that name... Drago?! So different from his father, uncles and aunts... I'm beginning to believe that he's really half-human! Ah, but no way am I going to make Drago his first son! NO WAY!!!