Hello again. Hmm, issues, issues. The whole separate Jacks thing might seem kind of weird, but just go with it. Jadebell, it might seem like I stole your idea of the soul wandering while sleeping, but I made up this part before I read Dream Tomorrow. I just sort of…borrowed it as an explanation? Well, you don't mind, right? Anyway, the parts at the end might seem kind of rushed and not as good as the rest of the story, because they were… This chapter is the first one without Bob in it, but he'll be showing up later. Yin Jack's costume was inspired by the costume he wears in his daydream in "Year of the Green Monkey". It's not exactly the same, but very similar. Uh…that's about it. Oh, and yes, I actually kept a list of all the yin-yang symbols I saw, and there were twenty-five… even though I know there might be more. If anyone has seen any in The Shard of Lightning, Dreamscape, Master Monk Guan, The Last Temptation of Raimundo, Year of the Green Monkey, The Apprentice, and Dangerous Minds, please let me know!
Thank you for all your reviews and your patience! Unfortunately, the dreaded S word has begun, and I've been side-tracked with a few other inspirations lately, so this is going on hiatus since I haven't exactly started Chapter 9 yet…I need to figure out exactly how this is going to proceed. Of course I know what's going to happen, but I need to figure out what order it needs to happen in. Correll- yes Jack's mother does live at the temple, and I just realized that I didn't even put her in last chapter at all… I really need to start using her more…but she's in this one, and she'll play an important role in the future. Jadebell- Hmm, Chase Young, Chase Young… Well, I didn't really want to include him much, since this doesn't follow the Season 2 storyline, but I suppose I'll have to put him in sooner or later, as one of the yin-yangs is in his lair. Either next chapter or chapter 10. Once again, this is going on hiatus! If you're going to review just to badger me for the next chapter, don't review at all. If you feel the need to "poke" me, do it through my e-mail address! It's in my profile!
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Chapter 8: Identity Crisis
No one had any idea how much time had passed, simply because it had been so short of a time, yet it felt so long to them.
Omi squirmed against the arms of Kimiko and Rai, who were holding him pinned to the stone step inside the Shen-Gong-Wu vault. "Let me out!" he cried. "What are you doing! We all should be out there defending the temple! Let go of me!"
"Omi…" Rai tried to reason with him. "It's useless. There's nothing we can do. Did you see the way they nearly killed us just with one incantation! It's better if we stay here and wait until it's over and then figure out a plan…"
"What?" Omi yelled in stark disbelief. "You want me to just lie here and wait while the Xiaolin Temple is being destroyed? Perhaps you truly are evil!"
"Whoa, whoa, calm down, Omi," Kimiko carefully said, repositioning her arm around his small body so he wouldn't slip out. "Rai is right. If we faced those witches again right now, we'd probably be killed. If we die, then who will be left to save the world from 1000 years of darkness?"
Omi grumbled, but at last consented and fell back to the ground between them. At last, the saddening rubble settled, and they couldn't hear the grinding, crashing noises of the witches' powers, like bombs exploding, anymore.
Slowly, Clay sat up and used all of his inherent strength to lift the heavy blocks of stone off of them. As soon as it was open enough for him to slip out, Omi dashed from underneath the rock and catapulted his light body up over the randomly placed pieces of the ceiling and towards the top of the vault. Clay finally pushed the stone slab completely off of them, and threw it over to crash against another one on its left.
Ever since Shésui had revealed her secret plan, Kimiko's mind had been focused on one thing, and she stepped a bit further down the steps to attend to it. Concernedly, Rai and Clay followed behind her. "Jack…" her soft, confused, and amazed voice said, partly to herself, and partly to the unconscious figure on the steps at her feet. She kneeled on the scratchy rock floor beside him, and reached out to lift the piece of the wooden banister that had fallen on top of him.
Jack was a little bruised from where the wooden plank had smacked into him, but other than that, he looked fine, except that he hadn't woken up yet. Kimiko threw the plank into the rest of the pile of debris and leaned closer over his body, while Clay and Rai drew closer behind her.
"What happened? Is he okay?" Rai asked, peering over her shoulder.
"Jack…" Kimiko repeated, staring down at his still form with guilt and regret.
Finally, he began to twitch back to life, and he instinctually pulled himself into a position facing upwards, as if awakening out of a deep slumber. His glassy red eyes rose from underneath his eyelids again, and he blinked in confusion and curiosity as Kimiko's familiar head focused into view in front of him. "Kimiko…?" he asked, wondering about the unusually soft expression on her face. She was still angry with him…she hated him, didn't she?
Relieved for the moment, Kimiko threw her arms around his neck, pulling him up into a sitting position. "Oh, Jack, I'm glad you're all right. …I'm sorry. I didn't know…about Shelly…I mean Shésui…"
"Huh?" Jack awkwardly replied, figuring out how to speak again. "…What happened?" He searched through his mind and tried to remember the last thing that had happened, but it was all a blank image. All he could recall was pain…some sort of emotional pain, and then this blackness and Kimiko's face.
"Shelly was really an evil Heylin witch named Shésui," Kimiko explained. "She was using you for her plan to get back at Wuya…"
Wuya… Jack glanced over Kimiko's shoulder and noticed the Soul Scepter, lying indestructible underneath another slab of concrete. That was right…he'd been using it when he wasn't supposed to…and now… "Oh! Oh no! Oh my God!" Jack suddenly snapped into panic mode, now out of his sleepy, awakening state. "Wuya! I…she…but…well… The Temple!" He jumped up, out of Kimiko's arms and stared at the pieces of temple debris strewn throughout the vault, biting his nails. "I didn't mean for…did it really…I wasn't in my right mind…"
"We know," Kimiko finished, standing up beside him, and looking forlornly over at the broken stone slabs. "You released Wuya again…but only because Shésui was putting the wrong things into your mind and messing with your mental stability. That other time…she probably wrote that note and made sure she did something so I would see you hugging her. That's what you were trying to explain to me, wasn't it?"
Jack took a deep breath and quickly nodded his head. At first, he wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about, but slowly he was beginning to understand. Shelly was really an evil Heylin witch…and she'd been tricking him all this time…implanting ideas in his head and reeling him in like a helpless fish. His hand clenched into a fist at his side. "I can't believe I couldn't figure it out…" he said to himself, his voice low. "I should've realized when she acted like she wanted me to release Wuya… I'm a boy genius; I should've been able to figure that out!" Promptly, he turned to bang his head against the center pillar, but as soon as he did, the whole pillar gave off a low rumbling sound and a large, splitting crack zigzagged its way through the stone.
"Quick!" Clay cried, turning to sprint back up the littered steps. "Before the stairs collapse!" The four of them scrambled over the oddly placed debris and towards the pinpoint of light where the entrance lied.
"Oh, man…" Jack whimpered to himself as Kimiko dragged him by the wrist behind her. "…I wish I had my HeliPack now…" He couldn't vault up the debris as quickly as the others, so Kimiko had to guide him like this.
"Yeah, no kidding," Rai shot back down at him. "The one time we actually need them, and where are they?"
Jack hung his head, but didn't reply because the rumbling, cracking, and splitting noises of the collapsing pillar drowned out all other noises. Thankfully, Clay, followed by Rai, and then Kimiko and Jack leaped out of the hole in the ground just as the pillar crumbled to pieces, and slipped downwards, the rest of the stones breaking into jagged slabs and falling into unrecognizable ruin.
"Phew," Rai panted, taking a deep breath and trying to recover from the adrenaline rush. Clay crossed his broad arms and frowned at the surroundings, which thankfully, the other Xiaolin Warriors hadn't noticed yet. Kimiko released Jack's wrist and leaned her hands against her knees to rest for a moment. Jack slowly pulled his eyes away from her pulsating body to look out at his new environment, and instantly wished that he hadn't.
Some of the dull smoke of despair still hung lightly in the air in the distance. The great, solid, magical reality of the Xiaolin temple was now nothing but a smoky pile of stone, wood, and plaster at his feet. Now and then, snatches of color, from former, painted columns, or fabric decorations poked through the death gray of the rubble. As he stood still, gaping, the others gradually looked up and gasped at the desecration. It was like the whole building had been leveled by some powerful bomb. For miles around, even to the last extent of the temple property, every building had become one of these dusty heaps. Even the cobblestone road between these buildings had been torn up, and the various gardens and outdoor training facilities were no where in sight.
A terrible silence fell over the four of them, and Kimiko reached down to pick up one blue piece of stone that had once decorated the roof. She rubbed it between her fingers for a moment, before tossing it back into the sea of destruction, despairingly. She just couldn't believe that after all that…training with Omi and the others…spending days together, strolling the garden, swimming, playing games, laughing together…here… Suddenly, it was just all…gone. Just like that. Her life, for the past year and a half…was just gone. Slowly, a small tear made its way down Kimiko's smooth, fair cheek. How could this happen? Feeling guilty and sympathetic, Jack stepped next to her and gently wrapped her in a hug.
Clay had similar feelings to Kimiko…he'd worked so hard to remain here at the temple, where he could be free and do whatever he wanted with his friends… Sure, living on his ranch in Texas was fun, but it got a little boring every now and then, and there were never any other people around, except for his family. The Xiaolin Temple had been a wonderful, mystical place of escape. How could it be destroyed just like that?
Meanwhile, in his corner, a cold dread feeling passed through Raimundo's body. Wuya, and that new witch, Shésui had just destroyed the temple and blown it to bits…that was exactly what Wuya would have done that time before…and he would've helped to destroy it. For a moment, he shared in Jack's feelings of guilt. This is what he had been doing when he betrayed the temple. Now, he couldn't believe that he'd done something this foolish so easily, and thinking he was justified… Rai shook his head and turned away from the temple's strewn body parts. That was in the past. He shouldn't be thinking about that now. Instead, he should be thinking about…
"My fellow Xiaolin Warriors!" Suddenly, they could see a small blue blob moving towards them amongst the multicolored temple pieces. As it drew closer, they noticed the yellow splotches mixed in with the blue, and for a moment they all felt strangely relieved.
"Omi!" Rai called, stepping up to meet him. "Where have you been? You didn't try to fight those witches all by yourself, did you?"
"No, no," Omi quickly told him, slowing to a stop in front of him. "They were already gone by the time I got out. But I have found the others…Dojo, and Master Fung, and Mistress Marylyn… You've got to come with me now!"
Kimiko gently lifted her head from Jack's chest when she heard Omi's little chirping voice. Like the birds twittering after a thunderstorm, he held a sort of commanding hope within his voice. Was that right? They were alive? That was what he'd just said, right?
"Where are they?" Rai urgently asked, looking around, pretending not to notice the rubble.
For a brief moment, Omi glanced over at Jack, a resentful look crossing his face, but quickly turned back. "Near the edge where the shed used to be," he answered Rai instead. "Follow me!" Omi moved with swiftness and agility over the torn pieces of the temple, but the other four, who'd had more time to ponder its existence carefully treaded after him.
Clay strode a bit ahead of Kimiko, Jack, and Rai, accurately stepping in the least desecrated areas and making sure he didn't lose sight of Omi. Kimiko shivered as she gazed over the leveled site and wondered how anyone could've survived this…but then again, she and her friends had. At last, Omi's head, which was all they could see of him now, parked itself near one small slab of a wall that was still standing. The closer they came to it, the more they began to see… A large group of men standing just on the other side of the monument, their crowd poking out from behind it.
"You are poking very slowly," Omi said in impatience when his fellow warriors finally caught up.
"Nah, we're slowpokes," Rai corrected, coming to a halt behind Clay and staring past him, towards the wall. "But really, can you blame us?"
In his mad dash to make sure everyone was okay and save the remnants of the temple, Omi hadn't got a long moment to truly look at the destruction around him, and now, as Rai's words echoed in his head and they gently inched closer to the pathetic shelter, he saw it for the first time. Just like that…his home…his life…was gone. Although his parents had died long before he was born, and he'd never felt lonely before, Omi suddenly felt he knew what it meant to be a true orphan.
Just before they reached the edge of the remaining wall, a pair of familiar figures stepped out of the sea of old monks, and the sight was a comfort to all of them. Marylyn Orre was the first to appear, standing tall and upright, her long, bright orange hair waving in the wind behind her, like a blaze of hope. Suddenly, for the first time in his life, Jack felt proud to have her hair color. Behind her, Master Fung gently stepped up to the burnt ground on the other side, his hands in his sleeves and Dojo entwined around his neck. The three of them looked over and stared at their shapes against the grayness of the temple debris.
It took a moment to recognize each other as being truly alive and well, but when the Xiaolin Warriors finally did, they rushed towards their caretakers in jubilant relief. Even Omi, who'd already known about Dojo, Master Fung, and Marylyn's survival, was scrambling towards them with his fellow Xiaolin Warriors. Surprisingly, Master Fung, who normally showed no signs of emotion or unjust favor to any of the monks, scooped little Omi up into his arms. It was only natural. He had raised this boy all by himself, and although he knew it was wrong, he felt that this boy was his son, and he didn't know what he would've done if he'd been killed.
Marylyn scooped Jack into her arms in a similar fashion, but since he was too big to pick up and cuddle, he just remained squished against her body, struggling for air. "Oh, my Jackie! My dear boy! I'm so happy you're okay! For a moment I thought I'd lost you forever! Oh, I couldn't bear to live with myself if that'd happened! I know! I'll protect you from now on! I won't let you out of my sight! I'm never going to leave you by yourself again!"
"Uh…Mom…" Jack croaked from underneath her arm. "I know you're really grateful and relieved, and I'm really grateful and relieved too, but…thanks, but no thanks." I should be careful what I wish for, he realized, remembering how he'd wished for a constant companion when Shésui had warped his thoughts to be sympathetic to Wuya.
At last, when Master Fung broke away from Omi, he welcomed Kimiko, then Raimundo, and then Clay into his arms as well.
"Hey, hey, what's this?" a familiar, complaining voice rose from the ground near where Omi was staring up at the hugging. "What, no love for the old, green guy? I spend this whole 1/750 of my life looking after you and flying you around the world, and this is the thanks I get? I could have died just now, you know!"
Omi reached down and squished the little dragon into a tight, fond hug. "Oh, thank you Dojo! I am most grateful and happy that you are still alive. I would hate for you to die at such a young age."
"Yeah," Dojo agreed, slithering out from under Omi's arms and resting on top of his head. "I am only 1500 years old…no, wait…I think I'm 1501 now…or is it 1502? Gah, I just stopped counting when I turned 1000."
Finally, after a few minutes and all the emotional hugging and greetings were over, a strange and uncomfortable silence fell over the group. "Master Fung?" Clay nervously asked, stepping forward to ask a very serious question. "Did…did everyone make it out okay?"
"Yes, mostly everyone," Master Fung answered, looking past the cowboy and out into the sea of death in front of him. "Some of our older members did not make it out in time. I plan to keep and preserve this portion of the retirement ward and consecrate it in their memory."
Omi, maddened by the thought of temple members dying in the attack, forcefully pointed at Jack and yelled, accusingly, "He did this!"
There was yet another moment of confused, shocked silence, Master Fung and Marylyn shocked that Jack would suddenly do something this evil again, and Kimiko, Clay, and Rai shocked that Omi would say something like this when he didn't even know what happened.
"…J…Jackie? …honey?" Marylyn slowly asked again, staring at her very frustrated and embarrassed son. "Did you really…?"
"No," he replied through gritted teeth. "Well, I did release Wuya from the Soul Scepter. I'm the only one who can, so it should be obvious that I released her…but, it wasn't my fault."
"And how is that not your fault?" Omi objected, crossing his arms, superiorly. "If you released her, then it's your fault. Unless someone forced you to do it…"
"Shésui…she…she put these ideas into my head… Now that I realize that she was a witch, I realize what she was doing to me…tricking me into thinking Wuya was my friend and that I should bring her back to be with me…"
"Well, you should have resisted them!" Omi barked. "Are you that easily swayed? Have Master Fung and I taught you nothing about focus and inner stability?"
"Yes…" Jack admitted, staring at the dull, smoky ground and wondering what would happen to him now. "You've taught me plenty. I just…didn't know…"
"It's not his fault!" Kimiko yelled, running up and hugging him to defend him for the first time in several weeks. "He was acting under that witch's influence. I think she was even using magic!"
"It doesn't matter if she was using magic or not!" Omi snapped back. "He should have been able to repel a simple mind-controlling spell, especially with his Silver Shield ability!"
"No, no," Master Fung at last spoke on this subject, turning to look into the panicked, worried expression twisting Jack's face. "Shésui could have very well and have easily tricked him. I know that. It's more my fault than anyone else's." At this, he turned away and hid his long, stony face in the shadow of one of his hands, resting it against his forehead. "I should have known. I know very well about the properties of the separations and incumbent powers of the Xiaolin Warriors…there cannot possibly be a Dragon of Ice. And I should have seen that the forbidden evil powers I was feeling were that of Shésui, the shape-shifting snake master of the Heylin clan, and bender of spirits."
"Bender of spirits?" Omi asked, at last giving up on his second Jack interrogation.
"Yes. She can bend the will and properties of spirits using her abilities…separate spirits from body, and put them back together again, as well as draw a spirit out from anywhere…or to amplify pieces of a spirit's composition."
"…That's what she did with Jack," Kimiko realized. "Bent his spirit and brought out the part of his life he spent with Wuya, believing that she was his friend."
"Possibly," Master Fung said, gravely. "But I really should have detected her evil presence and know of the falsification of a sixth Xiaolin Dragon."
"Fung, don't lay so much of the blame on yourself," Marylyn gently comforted, reaching over to carry the guilt. "It was partly my fault too. I never suspected…" The Xiaolin Warriors stared in awe as Marylyn continued to prattle on. Never before had they seen Master Fung so distressed and lost for words…except perhaps for when Wuya had temporarily taken control of China.
"The Shen-Gong-Wu…" he at last spoke again, turning from his personal suffering. "…are they safe?"
Omi pulled the Orb of Tornami from somewhere inside his temple robes. Kimiko produced the Star Hanabi from an unseen pocket, and Clay and Rai did the same with the Fist of Tebigong and the Sword of the Storm.
"That's it?" Marylyn asked, raising her eyebrows a bit. "I thought we had more Shen-Gong-Wu that that."
"Yeah," Dojo agreed. "What happened to the Mantis Flip Coin? The Two-Ton Tunic? The Eye of Dashi? The Third Arm Sash? The Tangle Web Comb? The Golden Tiger Claws? The Shroud of Shadows? The…?"
"Oh no!" Jack suddenly realized. "I left the Soul Scepter under that rock in the vault! And it's covered under the rubble from the steps of the vault, and the ceiling, along with all the other Shen-Gong-Wu in it! They're all buried in the ruin of the temple! And…I think I also left my Element Orbs down in my room…they're probably buried too! They probably shattered, and now I'll never get my powers! All of my robots have probably been destroyed! My…powers…my…Shen-Gong-Wu…my…robots!" Promptly, Jack began to cry for his machines, and the others rolled their eyes at him.
"You can always make new robots," Rai reasoned. "But we can't make new Shen-Gong-Wu! C'mon, guys, we've got to go dig them out!" He hastily turned to sprint back over the strewn guts of the Xiaolin Temple before Marylyn Orre called out to stop him.
"Just hold on a minute!" she yelled. "Just what are you planning to dig them out with?"
"Our elements!" Rai insisted, turning around to snap back at her. "We can still use our element powers, in combination with our Shen-Gong-Wu and our Element Orb powers! We're full-fledged Xiaolin Dragons with increased magical ability! A little rubble is nothing to us!"
Kimiko, Omi, and Clay seemed to be nodding and agreeing with him while Jack sniveled and gazed helplessly up at them. Master Fung easily and commandingly held out a hand, suddenly recovered from his spell of distress. "No. Calm yourself, Raimundo. It is getting much too late to excavate the ruins."
For the first time, the others noticed the dark sky above them, twinkling with stars, and the steady glow of a half-moon. The cool night air nipped at their clothing, and when they looked down, they noticed that they had de-transformed into their pajamas. "Master Fung's right," Kimiko agreed, shivering in her yellow flowered nightgown. "We can't start searching through all that wreckage this late at night…and especially in these clothes."
"But…my clothes were all in my room!" Rai frantically cried, pulling at his blank white tee-shirt and baggy pajama pants. "They're probably all torn up and destroyed!"
"Augh!" Kimiko shrieked when she realized this for the first time. "I had expensive designer outfits in there!"
"Now, now, no need to fuss," Master Fung reassured them. "You can all just camp out behind the wall for the night and we'll search through the debris early tomorrow morning. I'm sure you'll find all of your things unharmed."
"What are we going to wear tomorrow?" Rai insisted. "We can't search through it in this stuff."
Master Fung smiled, mysteriously. "I've got a few extra Xiaolin robes for those of you who need something to wear tomorrow."
Phew, Jack thought as he stood up and brushed his chained jeans off. I'm glad I hadn't changed into my pajamas yet.
The four Xiaolin Warriors begrudgingly took the folded clothing from their master's arms and began to trek to the back of the wall monument near the crowd of old former temple residents.
"Master Fung…" Omi worriedly asked, clutching his replacement uniform to his chest over his white-and-blue nighttime one. "…What about Wuya and Shésui? They're bound to launch another attack as soon as they learn that we're not really dead…"
"Aw, don't worry about that for now, 'lil buddy," Clay tried to comfort him, placing his large, strong hand over his small, round shoulder. "Them two witches are probably still fightin' with each other out in the fields right about now."
"Either that…" Master Fung gravely replied. "Or they're waiting for something. Wuya could have easily resurrected her empire in the blink of an eye after she was returned to her body. I'm not sure of what kind of physical-affecting abilities Shésui possesses, but I'm sure they are equally terrifying."
"But don't worry," Marylyn added, as Master Fung began to go off into a deep-thinking trance. "We'll be up all night to guard this section, and if we spot anything we'll wake you up immediately. I don't think they'll come back here, since as Clay said, they're probably still fighting, or waiting for an appropriate moment to strike."
Omi took a deep breath. "Okay. Just please…let no more harm come to this temple or my friends. I cannot bear to live through something else's destruction." Finally, he turned to follow Kimiko, Rai, Jack, and Clay to a small alcove near the remaining wall where Dojo had already started a small campfire.
Magically, he produced a plate of s'mores and five sleeping bags from out of nowhere. For the rest of the night, they sat around the mini-campfire eating the gooey confections, and if it weren't for the destruction and the imminent doom around them, they would've had a good time.
"This feels a lot like the time Mala Mala Jong attacked the temple," Kimiko commented. "Except Rai and Jack are here."
"Now what are we going to do?" Rai asked in despair, tossing bits of his graham cracker into the flame.
"Oooh, ooh! I know!" Dojo excitedly said, popping up in front of him. "Let's tell ghost stories!"
"Don't push it," Kimiko warned him.
A few minutes later, they were all too worn out to continue this unintentional campout and curled up in their sleeping bags to get some rest. Dojo curled himself on top of Omi's head and hung there, impersonating a snaky green hairdo. Soon they fell into a deep slumber and even the next few events wouldn't be enough to wake them.
(-)
Among the dark, foreboding debris of the Xiaolin Temple, a piece of material glistened in the glowing moonlight, poking itself to the top of the heap. Gently, almost naturally, the planks and litter of the large shipwreck rumbled and collapsed around the object. The round globe caught the faraway light of the moon and the numerous stars, creating a smooth white highlight around it. Just then, the gloss around its sides grew and spread, until the whole globe glowed from the shining plank deep within.
Like a ghostly wisp, some opaque shadow blinked into existence right alongside it. The outline of this form seemed small and helpless and for a moment it huddled in the temple pieces, pulling its legs against its small trunk. Then, finally, it uncurled itself and got a good look at its surroundings. Standing up, the figure finally caught the moonlight and revealed itself to anyone who might be looking in its direction. His large, round red eyes scanned the rubble against his small, shiny black shoes. The clay slats seemed to convince him of something, and he lifted his head to the sky, his deep orange hair flopping into his eyes. Frustratingly, he flung the annoying, tickling bangs off his forehead and stared at the rubble in disbelief again. Finally, some fabricated conclusion sunk into his brain and a delighted smile crept onto his face.
"…Yippee! Wooohooo! It's gone! Gone, gone, gone, gone! Gone forever! Demolished! Destroyed! Desecrated! Every other violent D word you can think of! Yeah! Yeah, woooooo! Let's celebrate, Three!"
Suddenly, the boy's jubilant demeanor faded away, and he turned to glance around him, worriedly. "…Three?" he asked, blinking his big ruby eyes. "Three!" When there was still no answer, the young boy stepped forward a few paces and put his hands to the sides of his mouth. "Three!" he called. "Three, where are you? Three! One! Two! Are you okay?" Urgently, he broke into a sprint over the crackling planks and pieces of clay, plaster, and glass, ignoring their breaking underneath his heavy dress shoes. "ONE! TWO! THREE!" he yelled as loud as his little lungs would allow, and tears began to well up on the edges of his eyes. "…One? Two? Three? …Daddy? Anybody?"
"Heh, heh, heh," a low, spiteful laugh reverberated down at him. "They're not here. Don't you know, those useless stepping stones were destroyed…and your Daddy's on the other side of town."
The child jerked his head upwards to see a dark, shadowy person descending from above. He was tall and sinister, draped in a ripped black cloak. Metal boots rimmed with spikes were on his feet, but the rest of his dark attire was invisible in this low light. However, the moon and stars provided enough light to outline the shoulder-pads of his outfit, a pair of human skulls, and his white painted face, blazing red hair and spiky, wiry band around his forehead.
"Wh-Who are you?" the boy stuttered, trying to step backwards and stumbling over an obtruding piece of wall siding. "Wh-what do you want? What did you do with Three and the others?"
"Pah," the young man blew off. "Number Three. Number Three was such an insignificant little scrap heap, I destroyed him even before this era was truly set. Forget Number Three…let me introduce you to Number Three Hundred! …and his cronies."
Large, hulking heaps of metal arose out of the horizon of destruction before him. They shone brilliantly in the evening light, and that was the first aspect of their advancement that placed awe and terror into the boy's heart. The second was the reflection of the moonlight off their silvery sharp saw blades, whirring on either side of them. The boy twitched in recognition. This must be the first model…purposely designed to kill. At first he wondered just who or what had got a hold of his designs and done this to him, until he realized exactly who that shadowy person was, and why he was here.
At the command of their master, the highly intelligent and advanced robots flew at lightning speed towards him…to go any faster they'd have to be holding the Shard of Lightning. Amazingly, the boy managed to jump and avoid their whirling blades or flatten himself against the littered ground to avoid their blows. Once, when he ducked down, he scooped the mysterious, glass orb into his small arms and turned as fast as he could to sprint into the distance. The robots followed, along with their master, whose jetpack enabled him to keep up with their every move. The deadly machines zoomed up behind the boy, and he realized that his desperate attempt at flight was useless. His small, short legs would never be able to outrun a pack of rocket-fueled robots. One of them jumped in front of him and screeched him to a halt. It shot several deadly blasts towards him, and he carefully dodged every one before continuing towards that comforting-looking monument in the distance.
Tears streamed from his closed eyes as he sped straight ahead to find his way out. Why? He wondered for a pensive, peaceful moment, but then as the images danced inside his head, he realized just what he was now, and what his purpose for being here really was. He had to tip the scales again…it was his duty as guardian of this magic…the magic he held fast against his chest in its round, glass container.
The boy couldn't slow his pumping legs and continued straight, even as his pursuer gave up for tonight and turned back into the shadows and even as a pair of legendary temple guardians called out for him to halt in the name of the Xiaolin Temple. Suddenly, he felt his shoe tighten around his little foot, uncomfortably, and something soft squish underneath it. His small body was whooshing forward, adrenaline panic racing through him in anticipation. A squeaky scream shot through the campsite, followed by an older, feminine shout.
"Augh!" Kimiko shrieked, shooting up in her sleeping bag again. "No! No, not again! What was that?" This was the second time this evening she'd been interrupted by some outside force, and she was panicking, thinking it was another attack by the Heylin witches.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Miss," a little voice chirped at her side and as her eyes focused, she could see the small shape of a child pulling itself up in the darkness. "I just wasn't looking where I was going. Please don't hurt me!"
"Oh…h-hello…" Kimiko replied, calming her nerves. "I'm not going to hurt you…are you…?" At these words, she froze and gazed up at the shaking boy standing over her. Somehow, he looked a bit familiar, but she was too tired to figure out where she might have seen him before. "You're…you're that kid I met in the temple that night!" she cried, recognized the outline and the little quavering voice. "It's good to see that you're still alright after that attack. Do you want me to help you find your way home?"
Promptly, the little boy shook his head. "No, no, I know where I am now. Thank you anyway…was it Kimiko?"
Kimiko smiled thinly and nodded her frazzled bed-head. "I thought you were a ghost that night," she told him. "So…did you want to stay with us?"
"…Us?" the boy asked, and then he glanced around and noticed the four other sleeping bags surrounding them. "Um…I guess…" he nervously replied, lowering his voice to whisper. "Are you guys…the Xiaolin Warriors?"
"Yup," Kimiko answered, bluntly. "We're good people; we want to help save the world…even though it looks like we're not doing a very good job of it."
"Shh," the boy hissed and leaned closer towards her. "If you want to save the world, you'll have to listen to me, because I hold the key to saving it…I just figured it out, but I'm really…"
"Hey, Kim, who're ya talkin' to?" the slightly fuzzy, bored drawl of Raimundo spoke up from his corner of the campsite.
"Oh, just the ghost kid from the corridor last night," Kimiko casually responded.
"What?" Rai cried, and the boy angrily turned around to silence him. By then it was already too late and Omi and Clay were slowly awakening as well.
"Huh?" Omi slowly asked, rubbing his slit eyes, groggily. "What's going on?"
"Hey, who's that little fella ya got with ya, Kimiko?" Clay asked, smiling pleasantly at the boy. Jack, whose sleeping bag was a bit further away from the others' remained in a deep sleep, softly snoring in the background.
"This is your ghost boy?" Rai teased, trying hard to keep in his laughter. "Doesn't look too threatening to me."
"Aw, he's so small," Omi ironically commented. "I believe I am taller than him!" The little monk stood up and separated himself from his sleeping bag to step up beside the little red-haired boy. "Yes, yes I am!" he triumphantly called, measuring from the top of his round head with his hand. The boy frowned and gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Okay, just leave him alone," Kimiko said, standing up and waving Omi away. "I think he has something important to tell us."
"What's that in 'is hands?" Clay spoke up, the first one to notice the smooth glass orb tucked in the boy's small hands.
"It looks like an Element Orb," Rai said, his green eyes widening a bit as he got a better look at the object.
"It looks like one of the Metal Orbs!" Omi clarified in excitement. "Did you find that for us? Thank you very much, honorable little stranger!"
No one listened to Kimiko, and at last Rai asked a question that the mysterious boy could answer and get them to listen. "So, what's your name, kid?" Rai gently asked, moving a little closer in wonder at the suddenly revealed "ghost boy".
Finally, a small, simple smile twisted the boy's lips up and his large ruby eyes twinkled at them, suspiciously. "Jack Spicer," he said.
A befuddled, uneasy silence followed, in which only the snoring of that very same person could be heard in the background. "Y-You must be confused," Omi gently comforted, patting the boy's fluffy orange head. "Jack Spicer is over there, sleeping. I can see how you might be delirious after wandering around the temple for so long and then having it collapse around you."
"Jack Spicer," the little boy repeated, as if they hadn't heard the first time. "That's my name."
Kimiko gently knelt down next to the boy, and asked, in an amazed whisper. "H-How old are you, um…Jack?"
"I'm seven," he answered, his little chirpy voice brightening in recognition of his triumph. Everyone froze again, and the snoring of the other Jack came through again.
Kimiko quickly covered the little boy with her sleeping bag so Jack wouldn't see him if he woke up. Suddenly, she recognized this boy…he looked exactly the same as a boy in a photograph that he had shown her…and told her it was him when he was a young child. "Wh-What happened?" she frantically asked, smothering him in her sleeping bag. "Did you come through a time machine from the past? Then, this must be the future to you…"
"Well, welcome to the future, Jack Spicer's former self!" Omi cheerfully greeted.
"Mmmmf!" little Jack cried from beneath the hot fabric of the sleeping bag. Kimiko finally pulled it off and let his appearance out again. Jack seemed to still be fast asleep, and besides, she wasn't really sure if anything bad would happen if he met his past self. "You didn't give me enough time to explain!" the boy's little voice squeaked at them. "I'm not Jack's past self, and I need your help to save the world!"
Once again, silence fell over the four Xiaolin Warriors, as they tried to process this in their minds. "But if you're not Jack from the past…why do you have the same name as him?" Clay asked, scratching his blond head.
"And why do you look exactly like him when he was seven?" Kimiko insisted.
"Because I have the same mentality," the strange, puzzling boy tried to explain. "I have the same memories, appearance, and presence as Jack at seven years old…I am him, in a manner of speaking. But I'm not. I didn't come through a time machine. I am the yang, the embodiment of the goodness in Jack, so I take the form and identity of his innocent childhood."
The four Xiaolin Warriors stared, incredulously at the creature in front of them, who, in his young, squeaky voice had just recited this complicated explanation to them. "Pleased to meet you!" he concluded, giving them all a friendly and extremely cute smile.
"So that Metal Orb…" Omi tried to further investigate the situation. "…Is that the good Metal Orb…the yang one?"
Little Jack nodded, at last starting to calm down and get the hang of things. "This is where I come from. Whenever he goes to sleep, his spirit passes through the orbs and gets separated. I am the piece that this orb separates out."
Nervously, the Xiaolin Warriors looked at themselves, and then back at the strange boy. "So…um…since you're the embodiment of Jack's yang essence, through the yang Metal Orb…" Omi reluctantly theorized. "…Does that mean there's a yin one, too?"
"Of course," little Yang Jack replied, matter-of-factly. "There can't be a yang without a yin, and vice versa. I don't know where Yin Jack went…he was chasing me just a while ago…"
The four of them nervously exchanged glances. As if they didn't have enough to deal with, now they also had a purely evil version of Jack Spicer on the loose somewhere around the destroyed temple. Little Omi gulped and swiveled his globe-like head towards the ground. "Perhaps…this is what they were waiting for…"
"Huh?" Rai questioned, lifting his tan face, a puzzled expression squeezed onto it.
"Them Heylin witches…" Clay realized, since he'd been standing beside Omi when he'd had that conversation with Master Fung and Marylyn. "They mighta been waitin' for us to go to sleep, so Jack would separate and they'd get his evil side."
"But why would they want Yin Jack?" Kimiko asked, raising her arching, Asian eyebrows. "Jack's really not evil, even when he was, he was just frustrated and following examples…how evil can his evil side really be?"
There was another pause in the conversation, and Omi frowned, seriously, to himself. "Well, the more goodness a good side contains, the more evil an evil side must contain, in order to balance the alignment."
"Put it this way…" Clay tried to explain. "Yin Jack's probably as evil and malicious as this 'lil guy is cute and innocent."
Yang Jack smiled again, and Kimiko couldn't help it anymore and squeezed him into a tight hug, pulling him off the ground. "Aww, you're just sooooo adorable!" she exclaimed.
"…Which would be pretty evil…" Rai added. Something struck him, and he sat up straighter. "Hey…that other night…it might've been Yin Jack I saw in the vault!"
"Probably," Kimiko told him, letting the little boy breathe again. "Since I saw him in the hallways another night."
Yang Jack gasped and wheezed for a few moments, before turning back towards the Xiaolin Warriors to explain something further. "There's something else…because the Orbs have been unleashed the scale of yin-yang has again been tipped towards the yin side, and I need to find and activate the twenty-five…"
Just at that moment, a resounding gong vibrated through the area, and from the mystifying twilight settling over them, they knew that it was morning and Master Fung was probably waking up the temple members so they could start searching through the wreckage. He had such rotten timing. Gently and gradually, Yang Jack began to fade away. He stopped mid-sentence and looked through his transparent arms.
"The twenty-five what?" Omi demanded, hating to be left in suspense.
The little redheaded boy opened his mouth and tried to speak, but his voice was already gone, and quickly, his whole body was vanishing. At last, his head dissolved into the atmosphere, and the Metal Orb he'd been holding clinked against the ground, yet remained unharmed.
Rai, Kimiko, Omi, and Clay stared at each other in panic and suspense. There was something they needed to do…but what was that! He needed to activate twenty-five unknown objects… Simultaneously, they all turned their heads towards the lumpy black sleeping bag sitting furthest away from the campfire.
"Ugh…huh? Is it time to get up already?" the familiar groggy voice spoke up, and a few seconds later, Jack was sitting up, rubbing his eyes and trying to clear his fuzzy head.
"No!" Rai shot at him, desperately trying to push him back into his sleeping bag. "Go back to sleep, please!"
"No, no, that might not be a good idea," Kimiko warned him. "He'll appear again, but so will he, and we're not prepared to fight him right now."
"But doesn't his soul separate itself through the Orbs?" Rai argued. "Yang Jack will appear here, and Yin Jack will appear wherever the Yin Orb is."
"I just don't want to take the chance," Kimiko told him. "So we'll have to go without knowing for now."
Jack blinked his wide, surprised eyes up at them from below Rai's hands. What were they trying to do to him?
"Perhaps he still knows!" Omi decided, and hopped over Kimiko and Rai to grab the collar of Jack's sweatshirt and keep him pinned to the ground. "Twenty-five what?" he again demanded, staring closely into his eyes.
Jack began to shake under Omi's glare. "Uh…I never said anything about twenty-five anything. I don't know what twenty-five you're talking about…"
"What twenty-five things do you need to activate?" he specified, and continued his deep glare.
"…I-I don't know…" Jack answered, stuttering uneasily. "I think there m-might've been a few robots before…but then there were only about th-three that I needed to activate…"
"Give up, Omi," Clay said, lifting the little bald monk from his adamant perch on top of Jack's body. "He don't remember anythin'."
"What?" As soon as both Omi and Rai had released him, Jack flew to his feet and confronted them, for the moment, not caring that he wasn't wearing shoes and that his hair was puffy and unkempt. "What are you all talking about? Did something happen last night while I was sleeping?"
"In a manner of speaking…yes," Rai told him. "Oh, and…here's your Element Orb, take good care of it." He plopped the yang Metal Orb into Jack's arms, tired of holding it up so long.
"But where's the other one?" Jack asked, looking around and searching the ground around their campsite with his eyes.
"That's the only one you're getting," Rai replied, staring gravely into his face.
"Did…did the other one get crushed?" he asked, nervously.
"No," Omi said. "But we reeeeeaaly wish it had."
Jack opened his mouth, but before he could ask another question, Master Fung and Marylyn Orre appeared in front of them, holding piles of shovels. "Good morning, my Xiaolin Dragons…and Apprentice," Master Fung greeted them. Jack frowned and crossed his arms, being the only Apprentice. "Once you get changed, we can begin the excavation of the Shen-Gong-Wu."
Kimiko, Clay, and Rai all sighed and picked up their folded temporary Xiaolin robes, brushed the dirt off them, and scuffled off to find trees to change behind. Omi picked up his as well, but looked up at Master Fung, worriedly. "Master Fung…" he questioningly began again. "What if some of the Shen-Gong-Wu were broken in the destruction?" he asked.
"There are ways of fixing them," Master Fung comfortingly answered. "Kimiko repaired the Mosaic Scale, didn't she? If we find the Rag of Resurrection intact, we can use that to repair any other broken Shen-Gong-Wu. Besides, if they were in their slots, I'm sure they were okay. It takes much concentration and magical strength to destroy a Shen-Gong-Wu."
"Yeah," the voice of a familiar lizard spoke up, and Dojo groggily crawled out from the disturbed folds of Omi's sleeping bag. "Dashi originally intended for the Shen-Gong-Wu to be indestructible…but some of the later ones were a little rushed, I think…" He paused to yawn, loudly and blink his red eyelids. "Ugh…is it morning already? I feel like I just went to bed."
"Don't you worry about it, dearie," Marylyn assured the little monk. "You just go get changed with the others. You wouldn't want to get all dirty in those white things."
Omi nodded, gravely and walked off to find another tree as well. In his anxiety about the state of the magical objects, he didn't even think to tell Marylyn and Master Fung about what they had seen last night, but it was still whirling around in the minds of his fellow Xiaolin Dragons.
"Well," Masrylyn again spoke up, turning cheerfully to her reluctant company. "Why don't we get a head start while we're waiting for the others to finish changing?"
Jack frowned again as he finished snapping his boots on. "Do I have to?" he whined. "They'll be back in two shakes. I don't really feel like going digging without even having breakfast or…"
With that, Master Fung thrust a shovel out and into his arms. "It would do you good, Jack," he gravely stated. "You need to focus to see things clearly. This is the only way you can ever move to a higher level…"
"Yeah, yeah, okay," Jack grudgingly accepted and swung the shovel out in front of him. "Don't see why I have to do extra work, just because I was ready before everyone else…" he muttered to himself as he turned to walk off. "Stupid imposter witch, making me think things and making me look bad; now none of them will ever trust me…already they're hiding things from me by not telling me what happened last night…"
"I'll come too." Marylyn firmly decided, turning around and calling over to him. "We have a few things to talk about." She placed the shovels in her arms on the ground, took one from the pile, and strode, confidently after her son.
"Mmm," Dojo mumbled, curling back up on top of Omi's sleeping bag. "Now I get a few more minutes' rest…"
"You too, Dojo Kanojo Cho," Master Fung insisted, holding out another shovel.
"Me?" Dojo asked, opening his eyes and lifting his snaky neck. "Why do I have to go dig for Shen-Gong-Wu? I'm not the one who needs mental training…"
"You were the temple guardian," Master Fung explained. "And I did not see much temple guarding going on that night."
Dojo sighed in defeat and grew to forty feet, altering his appearance to show his true form. He picked up the shovel, which suddenly seemed much smaller in his monstrous, scaly hand and flew off after the disgruntled Spicers.
Master Fung smiled a bit to himself, before moving on and administering shovels to the other members of his former temple. Dojo was 1,502, about middle-age for a dragon like him, yet he still made childlike mistakes. Age could not be determined by numbers alone.
(-)
"Found it!" Rai called, yanking one long, flat object from the gray monotony of the ground cavity below him. "One Reversing Mirror coming right up."
"Well that's good," Kimiko commented, digging the wedge of her shovel into the debris ground beneath her and leaning her arms against the wooden handle to take a break. "At least we know they didn't take that with them. I just hope we have the other powerful Wu with us. Have you found the Emperor Scorpion yet?"
"No," Rai despondently admitted. "Just one question- if the witches had the Emperor Scorpion, does that mean we wouldn't be able to use our Element Orb attacks against them as well?"
"Well, we probably could, but we wouldn't be able to complete the whole attack. It'd be like we didn't have our token Wu," Kimiko tried to explain.
Omi promptly hopped to Kimiko's side and held a hand out towards her. "Did you need me to take over your shoveling duties, Kimiko? I know you must be getting tired with those delicate female arms."
"I am not getting tired!" she angrily objected, snatching her shovel from the wreckage, and resisting a terrible urge to whack him over the head with it. "I was simply taking a two-second break!"
Meanwhile, in the distance, Clay was serenely shoveling through the pile of debris when he happened upon a familiar, silvery piece of cloth. Gently, he freed it from the thick pieces of rock it was wedged between. "Hey, look, y'all," he announced in victory, waving the cloth. "It's the Rag of Resurrection!"
"Good," Kimiko called over to him from her position. "Now we don't have to worry if anyone gets hurt." She cast a deliberate glance in Omi's direction. Thankfully, Omi didn't seem to notice, shoveling purposefully through the saddening rubble.
"I've got it!" another all-too-familiar voice cried a bit further away. The four Xiaolin Dragons turned their heads to see Jack Spicer smiling broadly and holding up a certain golden rod. "And it didn't get cracked or anything. These Shen-Gong-Wu are certainly very durable."
In an instant, Omi catapulted himself to his side, reaching up and snatching the Soul Scepter from his pale hands.
"Hey, what gives?" Jack complained, glaring down at the bald child at his side.
Omi carefully balanced the powerful Shen-Gong-Wu over his little arms. "Due to the present, unpredictable circumstances, we cannot allow you to touch this object until we are completely sure that you won't use it…"
"So that's it!" Jack cried, throwing up his shovel his exasperation. "I knew it! You don't trust me! After all I've been through trying to prove to you that I'm trustworthy… Why don't you tell me anything?"
"Jack…" Kimiko tried to calm him by stepping up on his side. "You have to understand…we were enemies for a long time…and you used that scepter to release Wuya again. I know Shelly…er, Shésui was urging you and trying to cast her spell over you, but you were weak enough to let her. We're afraid to let you know what's really happening because you could lose your mind and end up on the dark side again…and we don't want that."
"I just don't understand…" Jack muttered, shoving his shovel, forcefully into the ground. "I don't want to hurt you anymore. I would do anything to protect you guys from harm…even though I…helped destroy the temple. I really didn't want it to be destroyed. …You know that, right?" Slowly, his face was scrunching up as he became more distressed, and when he turned to face his new-old girlfriend, he looked close to tears.
"Yes, I know that now," Kimiko soothingly told him, placing one slim hand on his shoulder. She glanced back at Omi, running up to Dojo, Clay, and Rai to deposit the Soul Scepter with the other Shen-Gong-Wu. "…And I think they know it too, deep in their hearts. Right now you're going through a major change. That's what happens just before you gain your full powers. And there are two sides of you battling each other for complete control…even though you can't feel it."
Jack blinked, his constrained expression evaporating. "Well…whatever you say. I just hope whatever's happening to me isn't that bad."
Kimiko nodded. "We all do." At last, she released his shoulder and returned to her shoveling duties.
Jack walked off, a little bit further into the rubble, after making sure no one was watching him, and began to dig over the spot that used to be his robot lab. After a few strenuous hours of shoving aside pieces of plaster, wood, and dirt, and collecting body parts of former Jack-bots, he at last came to a scrap of opaque purple material. A little further digging revealed the entire head portion of the Wuya II, its swirling red eyes goring into him, as if teasing him somehow. Promptly, Jack smashed the broken robot against a pointy rock on his right and continued recovering his Jack-bot pieces. So much for technological advancement.
(-)
Another two hours later, Dojo had rounded up all of his tired Xiaolin Dragons, shovels, and his own achy limbs, and was reading off a long list of all the Shen-Gong-Wu they possessed. "…Sphere of Yun? Check. Woozy Shooter? Check. Fountain of Hui? Check. Shen Garoo? Check. Yin and Yang Yo-Yo's? Check. Soul Scepter? Check. Vase of Viscous Visions? Check. Rag of Resurrection? Check. Harp of Harmonies? Check. Wu Jin Duraflex? No, wait, that idiot Bob still has it. Scratch that. Instance Eraser? Check. Biao Lu Basin?"
At last, Dojo paused when he looked up from his slip of parchment this time. "…Biao Lu Basin? Where's the Biao Lu Basin?"
"We couldn't find it…" Rai tried to explain, panting like an overheated dog.
"Yeah…we searched everywhere…" Clay confirmed, slumping a bit forward like a blond gorilla in a cowboy costume.
"So that's it," Dojo announced, giving the Shen-Gong-Wu list one last glance-over. "They're all here except the Biao Lu Basin. They must have taken it when you weren't looking."
"But what would Wuya and Shésui want with the Biao Lu Basin?" Kimiko questioned, catching her breath by sitting on the ground in a relaxed posture. "All it can do is reveal true forms."
"Well, it can also reveal origins," Dojo explained, tapping one clawed finger against his snout. "If there is no "true form", per se. You might become a parent, or someone or something you were named after."
"But still, what origins would those witches need to see?" Kimiko questioned. "I still don't understand it."
Omi stood up straighter, upon realizing something amazingly significant. "Origins?" he cried. "Dojo…you mean, I could've used that Shen-Gong-Wu to find out who my parents were! Why didn't you tell us that earlier?"
Dojo froze in an uneasy lapse of silence. "I…I didn't think of it," he amazedly spoke up again. "But…you're right! We could finally find out who your parents were…but maybe that's why they stole it!"
"What, to prevent Omi from finding out about his parents?" Rai skeptically asked. "What purpose would that serve?"
Dojo seemed to go off into a daze. "Oh…never mind. I'm still not sure myself. C'mon, everyone, we need to report back to Master Fung."
"But I'm too tired," Jack spoke up, for the first time since meeting up with them again. Typical that the first sentence out of his mouth was a complaint. "Let's just sleep here and report back tomorrow…" He slowly dipped down to the left, resting his head against a protruding piece of insulation.
"No, we can't do that," Rai tried to reason. "We'd be sleeping out in the open where Wuya and Shésui would have a clear shot at us if they ever came back to finish us off. We need to get back behind the wall."
Omi, however, who had remembered the morning's events, instantly saw the opportunity. "Yes, yes, go to sleep, Jack. Really, we don't mind!"
"Yeah, you can go to sleep," Kimiko urged, dragging her body up to his side. "Just don't mind us."
On the contrary, Jack sat up again and raised his bushy eyebrows at them. "Why do you all suddenly want me to go to sleep? You must be planning to play some joke on me while I'm asleep. That's what it is."
"Oh, no, no, we wouldn't even think of it," Kimiko dismissed this accusation and for once, it was true.
"You can just stay here and sleep, it's okay," Omi added.
"I know, you're planning on leaving me all alone here to be attacked while you're safe behind the wall, aren't you? Well, I won't let you!" He began to struggle to his feet, but Rai and Clay quickly shoved him back to the ground.
"Of course we wouldn' do a thing like that…anymore…" Clay truthfully tried to persuade him. "You'll be perfectly safe here and we don't plan on goin' anywhere."
"Yeah, man," Rai added, after realizing what Omi and Kimiko were getting on to. "If you're tired, just go ahead and take a rest. We need to stick around here for a little longer and make sure we don't have the Biao Lu Basin anyway."
Looking up into his friends' falsely sincere faces, Jack was finally convinced and turned away from them onto one side. "Okay," he agreed. "But if anything weird happens to me again, I'm holding you responsible."
Clay and Rai released him, watching his breath grow steeper as he moved towards unconsciousness.
"Okay…what are we all waiting around for?" Dojo asked in annoyance and confusion. He hadn't been awake during the conversation between the Xiaolin Warriors and Yang Jack.
"Shhh," Omi whispered to him. "We're waiting for Jack to fall asleep."
Dojo was just about to ask why, when at last, he fell into complete, deep slumber, and a thin wisp of substance began spiraling up from the Element Orb peeking out of his backpack. The Xiaolin Warriors got to their feet and waited for the child to finish materializing. Eventually the small boy blinked into reality in front of them like a picture on a television screen.
"What the heck?" Dojo cried, rubbing his wide eyes. "Um…I think I may be having delusions, but…did you just see a little boy appear out of thin air?"
"Yes, I did!" Omi cried in triumph. "Dojo, meet Jack Spicer's yang essence."
"His yang essence?" Dojo asked, scratching his head. "Why…? What…? How…?" Rai took him aside to explain it to him, while Omi and Kimiko advanced on the childish figure to question him further.
The little redheaded boy smiled cheerfully at them. "Yay! My friends are back! It's great to see you!"
"It's great to see you too," Omi quickly told him, eager to get to business. "But what were you saying earlier? Something about twenty-five things that you needed to activate…"
"Oh…um…hmmm…" the little miniature Jack mumbled to himself, bringing a short, stubby finger up to the side of his mouth. "Oh, yeah!" he cried, suddenly remembering. "The balance of yin-yang has once again been tipped to the yin side, and I need to find and activate the twenty-five Balance Points to equal the forces out again. …Don't ask me how I know that; I just…do…"
"Balance Points?" Kimiko questioned. "That sounds like something out of a weight loss clinic."
By now, Rai and Clay had finished explaining the circumstance to their guardian dragon, and had turned back to listen in on the conversation. "The Balance Points are several round magical ports that can be activated by a yin or yang entity to help tip the balance of good and evil. Grand Master Dashi created them in order to contain the separation of powers created by the two versions of the Metal Orb. It happened accidentally during the creation of the Element Orbs… Don't ask me how I know that either."
Rai punched one fist into the palm of his other hand in determination. "So we've got to find these Balance Points and have you tip them back towards the yang side before Yin Jack gets here to stop us!" The other Xiaolin Warriors nodded in consent.
"The Balance Points all look like yin-yang symbols that appear on random objects throughout the world," Yang Jack explained. "So we've got to scour the whole earth looking for them. They could be anywhere. But at least I can sense where one is located. And the first one is…" The little redheaded boy closed his eyes against his freckled cheeks and concentrated with all his might. "In there!" He thrust one little arm towards the sea of debris around them.
"In the temple rubble?" Rai complained. "But we just finished searching through it… I really don't feel like doing any more digging…" He frowned, remembering his arching arms once again.
"It's okay," the little boy told him, his chirpy voice reassuring. "It's really close! In fact, it's only a few steps away! Follow me!" Just the sight of the tiny boy bustling with energy and hopping joyfully along in front of them seemed to boost their spirits.
Clay, Rai, Kimiko, and Omi walked over the piles of broken temple pieces and for the first time they felt their hope return to them, looking into little Jack's cheery face. Perhaps…they had a chance of beating Wuya and Shésui after all.
(-)
In a fittingly dark and sinister portion of China, bordering the temple, two women were moving animatedly in the black curtain of the shadows. Wuya crossed her black sleeved arms and rolled her slit eyes, annoyed again. After a few hours of deadlock fighting, she and Shésui had at last decided that they were getting nowhere and should concentrate their efforts into taking over the world instead. The one problem with this, Wuya easily saw, was that she'd have to share everything with that ungrateful Shésui. Looking into her brown-haired nemesis's sparkly blue eyes, she could tell that she felt the same way. Ruling the world with somebody wouldn't cut it, even though she had promised Jack the same thing when she'd first met him…not that she ever intended to keep that promise.
"It's important that we revive the entire Heylin clan…" Shésui was saying, half to herself, because Wuya was only half-listening. "And with the current situation, I believe we could have most of it back. We could use the CFPU for followers, and this to reveal an evil person's origins…" The icy woman held up a familiar large, golden tub, but her plan recitation was cut short by a sharp "Shhh!" from Wuya.
The legendary evil sorceress brought one hand up to her elfin ear. "Do you hear that!" she hissed. "Someone's coming! It sounds like one of those infernal Xiaolin brats, coming to spy on us!"
Shésui immediately lowered her voice. "I thought we killed all of them in the Vault," she objected, "But even if they did find a way to survive, we can just kill them here, right? It's no problem."
A dark form was emerging in the distance, and Wuya hushed her reluctant partner into silence once again. She was just about to approach the figure, blasting fingers raised, when the person spoke to them.
"Pleasure meeting up with you ladies," a somewhat deeper but strikingly familiar voice piped up.
"Who are you?" Wuya demanded, steadying her lock on the person in case they made one wrong move. "I know who you sound like, but you can't possibly be…"
Then, at that statement, the figure moved closer to the two witches, so they could see him. A pasty white face emerged in front of them, accompanied by a dark robe and shiny white skull shoulders. His spiky, bright red hair was pulled back underneath a crown-like hat, and his matching eyes seemed narrower and wise. He smiled and seemed the spitting image of a vampire, minus the bloody fangs.
Wuya blinked, an unusual falter of surprise. "Jack?" she hissed. "What are you doing here? You know we have no further use for you. Get lost before we kill you too."
"Aww, I find it sweet that you care," the mysterious Jack-shaped entity continued, his voice a taunting singsong. "And anyway, if you were paying close enough attention you would've been able to tell that I'm not Jack Spicer…not in this timeframe, anyway." He was right, Wuya realized. This figure seemed so much like him…but there was something different about him.
"So tell us who you are, already!" Shésui broke through the silence, stomping forward and grabbing the boy by the collar. "Before I make a third skull on top of that coat!"
"Okay, okay," the voice said again, chillingly calm, especially for Jack Spicer. "No need to get impatient. Just release me and I'll tell you."
Shésui slowly loosened her grip on him, although she kept her shooting fingers cocked towards his heart, as did Wuya. "Okay. You better explain yourself now."
The figure smiled again, revealing his top row of yellow teeth. "I am Jack's pure yin essence," he began. "I appear through the Yin Metal Orb…" He paused to hold up a shining grayish globe. "…Whenever he goes to sleep and his soul wanders. I take the form of a shade from his possible future."
A small grin began to twist onto Wuya's face. At last, a Jack who was truly evil. And being older, he seemed much more clever and sensible. This could be a most favorable turn of events.
"Right now, since your release, the yin-yang balance has once again been tipped to the yin side…but I'm sure my yang equivalent, along with the Xiaolin Warriors will be out looking for the Balance Points to equalize the forces. We've got to get there before them and prevent them from achieving this."
Wuya nodded to herself, allowing this information to process in her mind. "Ah, yes. The Balance Points. I happened upon a few of them earlier. There was one in that idiot Raimundo's playroom."
Yin Jack nodded back at her. "Once we eliminate them and fix the twenty-five Balance Points to our side, it will be ridiculously easy to take over the world."
Shésui smiled as well, stepping up next to him. "I guess we'll be making a temporary partnership, eh?" she suggested.
"Well, yes, I guess so," Yin Jack finally agreed. He turned to summon his army of futuristic, enhanced Jack-bots up behind him.
While Shésui continued to speak to him and marvel at the new robots, Wuya turned away from the scene. Her bright, evil eyes settled upon a familiar shimmering spot left abandoned on the ground. The Biao Lu Basin. Quickly, she snatched it into her arms. Then, glancing back at her new partners, an idea began to form in her head. She looked down at the Biao Lu Basin…then over at Yin Jack…and then back again. As infuriating as Shésui was…sometimes, she did come up with some legitimate plans…