Chapter 6

"Never! No, you can't take it away from me again Wuya. I won't let you! I won't give up this time! Kimiko believes in me!" said Raimundo, getting to his feet, after being thrown into the cave.

"You still don't know, do you? Well, I guess I did bury it pretty deep." said Wuya as she healed herself through her magic, but it would take time. Time, in which Raimundo was intent, on taking advantage of. He aimed a high kick and moved like lightning, but she turned around, grabbed his leg, and slammed him into the wall.

"Too obvious," said Wuya, "Subtly never was your strong point was it, slave."

"I am no one's SLAVE!"

He attacked again and she, grabbed his arm, putting him into a hammer lock, slammed his face up against the stone walls of the cave. Dust fell from the ceiling.

"What do you want from me?" coughed Raimundo.

"You're heart…" she whispered in his ear.

"My heart? What are you…?"

Before he could finish, Wuya threw him headlong into the opposite wall. Rai fell to the ground, battered and beaten.

"Ki…mi…ko…" he whispered.

"Not even she can save you, from what I have in store." Wuya said, as she dug her nails into his arm and pulled him up. She then proceeded, to throw him even further into the cave.

Wuya laughed, "You love her, don't you Raimundo? That's why you held onto her name, when you lost everything else. You wanted to tell her how you felt. What makes you think she would be interested in a poor, Spanish, orphaned street-rat like you."

"Then…why…?" said Raimundo, staggering to his feet again.

"She pitied you because you were so pathetic," laughed Wuya, "She doesn't love you. She thinks that you're her little pet, that she can take home and tend to. You're nothing but an animal, Raimundo."

"No…" Rai grabbed his head. Wuya was just using her magic to confuse him. "Stop messing with my head!"

She kicked him hard in the stomach, making him fly back into the passage ways. She smiled to herself. It was working. Raimundo's mind was opening up itself for attack. Yet, she hadn't realized before, that he had still had the instinct to know how to fight. She wasn't going to make that mistake again.

Raimundo spat blood on the floor and rolled over onto his side. He had landed oddly, and he suspected that one of his ribs might have cracked. There was also the distinct taste of blood lingering in his mouth. What Wuya said had to be a lie! He knew now that he loved Kimiko more than anything, but did she love him? Could she look past his underprivileged background and…take his misbegotten heart.

"No…witch…" gasped Raimundo, between sharp breaths, "You…can't…trick…me again."

"I have no intention of tricking you, I only speak the truth. I do everything in your best interest, Raimundo. Remember how those three called you their friend, but turned their back on you when you needed them? I, have been there for you, and I, gave you everything you ever wanted, and I, will take care of you Raimundo. I, promise…" said Wuya sweetly, caressing his shoulders. Then her grip got tighter, "But first, you must learn some manners…"

Kimiko stared up and down the deserted mountain path. The rain was coming down hard, drenching herself, Omi and Clay. Dojo was safely tucked away up Clay's sleeve and out of the rain.

"Dojo, can't you fly around the mountains and look for the cave?" asked Clay.

"Water and dragons don't mix!" said Dojo.

"Dojo, please?" asked Kimiko, putting on her sweetest voice, "Raimundo's life is in danger."

Dojo groaned. He never could say no to that voice. He crawled out of Clay's sleeve and grew in size, flying out into the sky and circling the mountains.

"Where did you first see him?" asked Clay.

"I first saw him up there out of the corner of my eye," said Kimiko, pointing up at the side of the mountain face.

"Well there's no cave there," said Omi, "We've been up there before."

"He must have followed me without me noticing," sighed Kimiko, sweeping her black hair out of her eyes, "This is all my fault, I should've asked. I let him down…again."

"None of us expected the extent of Wuya's evil." said Omi.

"Don't beat yourself up about it," said Clay.

"No…" said Kimiko, staring up at the dark sky, "Rai need s me." And whispering softer, "And I need him…"

"What were you talking about when she shanghaied him?" asked Clay.

"What?" asked Kimiko.

"Something he was saying obviously distracted you enough for Wuya to take him." said Omi.

Clay frowned at him. "What?" Omi said.

Kimiko stared down at her boots, tears filling her eyes. She bit her lip, praying that Raimundo was alright.

"He remembered," She whispered, "He remembered everything. He was Raimundo again."

Clay and Omi stared at her. She wished that the sky would open up and send countless shoots of lightening to kill her know. It was all her fault! For a split second, it almost felt as though her heart was engulfed in flames, but then a voice rang through the night.

"There's a cave in the side of the mountain over there!" called Dojo, touching down on the ground, "Climb on and I'll give you a lift."

Back at the temple, Master Lao-Tai Fung was staring up at the mountains. He would've gone with them, but he was no match for Wuya. That was why they had summoned the dragons, so they could fight Wuya while the Monks protected the Shen Gong Wu. But right now he just felt weak and helpless. He knew he should've gone up to the mountains, but he would have probably got in the way. This was a battle that sorceress should never have tried to fight.

You could never win, in a battle against love…

Raimundo spat again, more blood hit the ground. Wuya kicked him hard in the side for a second time. He groaned.

"You're nothing, but a filthy animal Raimundo," she laughed, "You're lower than the dogs, covered in fleas and begging for mercy. What did you think a rich lady of class, like Kimiko, would ever see in you? "

She picked him and slammed him hard against the wall. Raimundo knew where he was now, even though his mind was now too muddled to realize the nature of that knowledge. The chains were still lying on the ground in front of him. She had forced him back to the centre of the system.

"You recognize this place don't you? We had such good times here…well, I did." laughed Wuya.

Raimundo slid to the floor and Wuya picked up the chains.

"No…please, no…" said Raimundo, gagging on his own blood.

"Oh, yes." Wuya answered, amused. The young monk had a strong will, but hers was stronger. Raimundo had the power to destroy her, and above all, he must never be allowed to know it.

Clasping hold of both his struggling wrists, she bound the chains on them again; this time they were even tighter than before. Using a shot of green flame, she smelted them to the cave's ceiling. Stepping back to view her work, she smiled an evil grin. There was no way, he would ever escape from here again.

Raimundo was back in the same position again. His body was weak but his mind was still kind of there. In the back of it, the wheels began turning, as he looked through his newly found memories, as to what Wuya really wanted from him…

He didn't have much time to think! Wuya's high-heeled boot slammed into his stomach, sending whatever breakfast he'd eaten, the opposite direction. Yet, with it, also lost, was part of his memories! With each strike the sorceress sent through his body, some of her magic slowly wiped his mind clean! Making him forget his life, before the cave…

His life before…with Kimiko…

Forcing him to feel, alone…

Wuya's mind though, was on other matters, "Look what you did to my clothes!" pointing at the vomit that landed on it. She started toward him slowly, her "claws" out. "You'll pay for that…"

Kimiko ran along passages until she came to a fork in the path.

"Which way?" she asked.

"I thought you were supposed to keep going left in caves," said Omi.

"That's mazes, and it very rarely works." said Clay.

"This is no good." shouted Kimiko, "How are we going to find him now?"

"We will Kim," said Clay, "It's just gonna take some time."

Kimiko stared down at the floor. "Time we don't have…"

Water dripped down her face onto the ground. That's when Kimiko noticed another liquid on the ground, just in the mouth of the right tunnel. She bent down and dipped her fingers into it.

"Blood," said Omi.

Kimiko gasped and began gritting her teeth in anger. Just then, a bloodcurdling scream rang throughout the cave corridors.

Clay jumped, "That sounded worse, than a banshee getting thrust up by a two-legged jackal."

Kim knew instantly whose scream that was, "RAIMUNDO!"