Me: You will try to guess who is the wolf in this story. (grin mysteriously)
Zalo: (in spooky voice) "There shall be a sacrifice… A life for a life…" in next third chapter…
Me: (glare at Zalo) not that again! They're already knows about it! (look at readers) Are you?
Readers: Yes
Me: (grinned at Zalo) there you see!
((Across from Japan to America, Ariko run screaming while the angry mob from dArkliTe-sPirit, Kosmic, and other fangirls.))
Khu: Disclaimer: Lady Lizgon does not own Xiaolin Showdown and its characters but her sheng-gong-wu and her ideas.
Yamato: You. Read. This. Story. Or. Die!
Me: (smack his forehead)
Chapter 24: Tiger God's Portal
Previously
"His name will be Alvaro…" Kisara answered, seeing the youth's expression. "It means "guard of all," young one."
Alvaro…
'Alvaro was Uncle Miguel's great, great, great, great grandfather.' The youth thought in surprise and grateful that he heard the great stories from his uncle's late grandfather since he was a young child.
---
"Yeah. I know. I'm only one who could strike back at very heart…" He looked back at Kisara with a small smile. "If Xuan and I knew each other before the war's beginning, would a friendship be going on? But now I will not go back against my word that I would be the one to beat him…"
"But he's under control, Zalo!"
"… I know. It won't change my mind. Under control or not, he still owns me a fight and he will have a chance to show who's strongest warrior." He said as he left.
---
"Stop it! You're choking him to death!"
He glanced down at his hands to his own shock, his hands was wrapping around his leader's neck without noticing or realizing. For a first time, he had seen what his hands look like and it was not his, instead of human hands it is a silver beast scales-like paws with black sharp talons.
Wasn't he a human?
"No…"
---
The older boy stared down at the dying boy in his arms as his sad eyes clouded with tears. "Brother…"
The dying boy opened his eyes and smiled weakly at his young brother. "…I'm here…"
"Why, brother?"
Xuan sighed tiredly and then he glanced up at his brother's tearful forest green eyes. "The reason I will not let that spirit to have my full soul. Is that why I broke my soul into half two and scattered them over world."
"But you could have died, Xuan!"
Xuan shook his head. "I could not. Unless you have to destroyed my body to get rid of all of my power. Perhaps, the reason why Xiao Lin have banished me because my power is too powerful to control and destroy all lives I have caused in under control. Please, my little brother, do it to end my life."
"No, I will not!" Shinyu cried, crying heavily as he clutched his dying brother's body knowing the last thing he wanted for his brother to be out of his sight forever. "I promise you that you will live the life!"
Khu's eyes softened at Shinyu's words.
Xuan shook his head weakly and closed his eyes for one more final time. "No, Shinyu… As a true Heylin Tiger of Darkness and exiled warrior, I asked you to placed the blue feather on your newborn son." To Shinyu and Khu's surprise as the exiled warrior sighed, "Yes I did know of your newborn son, Alvaro. Let a half soul be in one of our grandson/grandnephew, little brother."
"What about the other half?"
"… Let it lie within the void…the place where he will not find… The gateway of the darkness, the link to the source… one of our grandnephew who will be the one to hold the true darkness."
Shinyu frowned in confusingly at his older brother and looked down at his fading life of the amethyst eyes. "Brother… Xuan…"
Xuan smiled for one more time and then he went limped in the brother's arms. As Shinyu let out a sob and lend over his brother's lifeless body while he cried upon on him.
---
His spirit ancestor nodded in agreement as Khu sighed covering his face with his hands until it something hits him for the third time. "Xuan…"
"Hmm…?"
"Where's the two half souls?"
All the youth had gotten from Xuan's answer was a smile.
---
Afterward
The villain-wannabe teenagers and the newly Xiaolin Dragon of Soul (Jermaine) rode on the black dragon while they headed the flame.
Jermaine's eyes widened as he recognized the tiny figure-like people. "There they are!" He yelled, crawling over Gojo's head and ignoring his protests.
Jack looked over Jermaine's shoulder and his red eyes widened in horror. "What is that ugly thing over there?" He said shakily, pointing at the snake-like man.
Gojo's crimson eyes widened in recognizable. "Shit… Ariko… Or should I say, The Serpent."
"The Serpent!" Everyone yelled in union, looking to the giant dragon with confusion. Jack's red eyes lit up happily, "The one known as Lord Ariko, Apep, Devil's Servant, Python or Leviathan who caused Chaos, Hatred, Destruction and Death upon the villages?" He asked claimed his hands together happily. "He's my number one favorite villain!"
Everyone stared blankly at him.
The leafless trees crackling echoed through the silence.
"You need to see a physician, gothic." Gojo replied dryly to the goth-boy. "You're too way obsessed with every real evil villain prince, lord, king, spirit and demi-god."
"Hey!" Jack huffed, crossing his arms and sour looks on his face as his friends laughing their head off including his only friend, Ashley.
----
The blue feather fell downward from the ashes
Landing on the smooth and soothing of waters
The hand reaches for it and clutching it tightly
Like as if it were the last hope
For the endless, ruthless war
To be end with the sacred power
----
The blood splashed on the lifeless, black ground as the dragon fell backward on its back with the huge gasp across upon on its chest.
The Serpent raised its head and roared loudly, towing over the fallen dragon. "Weakling!" It said hissing down at the small reptile. "You could not fight back, Young. Not with the great injures."
The reptile rose up from the ground weakly, glaring up at the Serpent. "I will not surrender to you, you monstrous sinful spirit." He hissed with dipping in venom. "I will die fighting rather begging for mercy."
Suddenly, he summoned the blue flame and shot it at the Serpent. The Serpent dodged the flame and opened its mouth.
And ice beam out of its jaws and freezing half of the wounded reptile's body parts.
"I am the Pain." The Serpent hissed deadly quietly as it stepped through the blue flame without flinch at the stinging of pain.
It turned the long black tail and smashed the wounded reptile's chest as he was flying backward in the air and crushed onto the ground with a hiss of pain.
"I am the Sin." It hissed, walking slowly toward the wounded reptile who was struggling to get up stubbornly. As the Serpent walks, the touch of evil spread over the ground that was once a life turns into the black field.
"I am the Liar." The Serpent taunted at the fallen Heylin Master who was once a Xiaolin Master.
The Reptile snarled glaring at the lying son of the bastard. The memories of betraying his best friend, the destruction of his hometown, and the death of innocent villagers flashed rushing in his mind.
"I am the Destruction." The Serpent replied smashing its foot on the ground as the ground shook and shattered around the rebellious reptile as the familiar smell of the hot lava streaming from within the dead earth.
The reptile had to seize a chance to blow the shape-changing demi-vampire spirit into the pit of lava, but it was too late for him to do as the black tail smashed it back onto the ground and the weight of the pressure pressed against its chest as he gasped for air.
"I am the Death!"
The deadly, black talons raised upward in the blackening sky above the Serpent as the reptile could see the evil glint in the dark spirit's dead, dull yellow eyes.
The reptile held his golden eyes locked into the spirit's eyes, not ready to be back down from the deadly blow as the talons went downward in impossibly speed than blink of light speed.
----
"How could you not know where the half souls?" The ancestor asked calmly, smiling at the Khu. "Have you not seen nor hear my final words, have you?"
Khu's amethyst eyes shrinks dimly in surprise when he recalled the memories of the ancestor's dying words. "The blue feather…"
The ancestor tilted his head to side, waiting patiently for the youth to grasp the about revealing of the hidden location of the splitting souls.
"Within you, my dear youth child."
Khu looked up at him with startle yet understandable look. "But what about the other half soul? What does it mean by let it lie within the void?" He asked stepping forward to the spirit of ancestor.
"You shall know once you cross the line to find the other half."
Khu frowned at the ancestor. "But how?"
The ancestor gives him a look. The young Heylin Tiger of Darkness realized, his eyes widened once more than shrink.
"You shall know once you cross the line to find the other half. Find the Key." As the ancestor faded away, Khu startled reaching for his ancestor.
"Wait a second! How able I find the Key?"
"You will know." As the spirit disappeared, the youth stumped his shoulders with hopeless look.
I am back.
He turned around, to his own surprises, to see the same wolf he had seen earlier as he stepped back away from the black wolf.
The black wolf cocked its head, looking curious at the youth with its cold amethyst eyes. Ready to face your own fears, human…
Suddenly, the youth and the wolf were back in the same place where Khu first saw the wolf. As the house appeared being burning with tauntingly, burning orange fires to the ground, Khu could see the two familiarly dead bodies.
Uncle Miguel…
Aunt Kara…
They're surround in the blood of pool, staring lifelessly at the ceiling as Khu willed himself look away from the corpses.
Where's Raimundo?
He would have sworn that he was back as a child, crying for his long lost cousin. It had been his nightmare since he had brought the birthday present for his cousin that day he had found the dead bodies inside.
The death of your cousin's parents will haunt you to no end, Aseso. His death will be your fault. His downfall will be the cause of you. You shall be in no shape to save their lives because you are a failure.
Khu could see the changing of the scene into the part where he don't want to see – his cousin dead with sword implied in his chest, Kobo was burnt corpse from the silver cross through his chest and hands, all of Xiaolin Dragons were torn into pieces of corpse parts, Lobo was shot in his werewolf form, and Ciara was bleeding to death, had no hope to survive in this horrific, black area.
"Pedsora…."
Khu turned his head and stared in half-surprise and half-horror at the ex-rival stood before him bleeding badly, had few torn clothes but surprisingly remain where it is.
"Yamato… Wha…" He begins but Yamato cuts him off, snarling weakly but stubbornly stood as proud.
"Shut up, you bastard. You killed your cousin! You're no better than that lying son of a bastard! You are better off dead so we could be alive as flesh." Yamato yelled glaring at Khu with hateful crimson eyes becomes slit-like as he stepped forward to the leader. "If only you would never born, my parents would be still alive…"
"Yamato…"
"Lobo would never gotten himself a scar…"
"Wait a second…"
"Kobo would never being forced to witness his parents being murdered by the hunters, Pedsora…"
Khu's amethyst eyes softened sadly, stepping back as the dying boy stepped forward again. "…Yamato…"
The sharp glazing of the crimson eyes locked into the leader's soft, sad amethyst eyes. "Ciara would be happy with her whole family without worrying about the outside or fear for his uncle's safety."
Khu remain silent, stood looking away from the burning stare knowing that he was at the end of the blade.
"You killed me with your blade!" Yamato howled with such fury of rage inside his chest, pulling the same blade Khu saw it was his own Shadow Blade. "You kill me! You said you don't want to fight against me but you did! You did!"
Khu turned his head to other direction and saw the silent wolf sits staring emotionless at him. Narrowing his amethyst eyes at the creature of his fears, he turned his back on Yamato not caring if he was going to be killed by his own fear.
Do you yield, child? Tell me, young half-soul of a blue feather. Are you despairing?
Khu jerked up in surprise and stared at the wolf before he realized the wolf was his inner self because it knows him…it was like him, but in the form of his self he had hiding long ago.
"I know it seem hopelessly to me…" Khu said softly, looking at the wolf and then smiled knowing what to do. "But not hopelessly enough because there is a hope within me."
Khu pointed at the wolf and yelled as loud as he could, "I challenge you to Heylin Showdown, Inner Self! The game is Seek the Shadow!"
The wolf smirked his cold, dead amethyst eyes at the youth. I accept. But to makes it interesting. I double challenge you to Shen Yi Bu. The one who falls into the void of Death will lose.
Khu narrowed his amethyst eyes at the wolf as he nodded stiffly.
"GONG YI TEMPAI!"
---
A blood split onto the ground…
The surprised look in the yellow eyes as it stared at the old rival in its clutch, limping in talons near dead.
The creature was looking shocked at the lump form in the sinful spirit held a prize in its talons.
"No…"
Mistress Lizgon halted her track as she and Kobo got arrived in time to see the small creature was torn from the living of the world.
She widened her dark hazel eyes as she opened her mouth to scream but no words escaped from her lips.
No! No! No nononononononono!
She shook her head crying her eyes out at the horrific sight, hugging around her arms tightly as a weak sob finally wretched out from her thirsty throat.
"Brother!"
---
The blue feather disappeared
As the new life brought to the world
The other half flew into the gaping hole
Where it will never be found
By the sinful spirit
And its destruction talons
---
Khu leaped into the darkness, adjusted his amethyst eyes in the dark to see any shape of shadow to move.
Suddenly, a pain in his side as he was thrown across the field of darkness and landed on his feet like a graceful cat. Khu looked back and glared the shadow shape lurking around, gritted his teeth as his side in pain like hell.
Then he stopped, remembering his master once told him to be silent and listen clearly. He remains where he was and closing his amethyst eyes.
Listening to the silence until the tiny creaking of the field could be heard through the thick fog of the silence. As he whirled and sent a double kick blow at the target of sound as the shadow yelped when it revealed the wolf.
Then again, he narrowed his amethyst eyes, no mercy.
The final blow as the wolf finally falls from the field to its doom and the showdown returned to the normal field again.
Khu sighed, closing his amethyst eyes again. "Now it finally gets off me…" He reopened his eyes and glancing around. "But how suppose I get out of this pointless dream of void?"
The light shined caught his eyes and he glanced at the familiar object.
A purple portal, his eyes widened in recognizable, the portal of Golden Tiger Claws!
"Alright!" He leaped for joy; normally he wouldn't do that like his playful, carefree, rebellious cousin as he ran toward the portal and dived into it before it had a chance to closed itself in this time.
The black wolf reappeared in the black field, smiling with ancient knowledge behind the familiar old amethyst eyes.
Good luck, young child. Be alert for the spirit…
The wolf turned around as the fog appeared behind him, disappearing into the familiar shape of a human in shadow form…
End of Chapter 23
Me: Yay! It's only four more chapters left to go! (dances happily)
Here's sneak peek.
Mistress kneed clutching a lifeless form, crying her eyes out as the dragons and tigers stared sadly at them. Kobo looked back at the laughing spirit and clutched his fists.
He may not like to fight but as a duty to be true Heylin Tiger of Light, he had to fight. He had to.
No matter what his brother said to him, he had choose what he want and go where he want. Just like he choose to be with his brother when he was banished by General. He choose to save Khu's life by absorbing the power of Rai's lighting wind-like typhoon attack.
He had save a Xiaolin Dragon of Wind's life by finally shattering his mirror.
Now, he will rather die stopping the evil threat than let one of his friends die without hope.
--
The angry look in the green eyes, he stood glaring at the spirit. He gripped his Rod of Lightning. The Spirit smirked evilly, "You, child, are like the fool traitor."
--
"No! A half-soul is taken!" The rebellious spirit yelled his green eyes widened as he stared in horror at the beginning of destruction.
Me: Please read and reviews this when you're done, thank you.