Ferret: (is sitting, eating a pudding cup. Beside her are several more) Hey everyone! (waves) dl'll be back soon. She's trying to convince Roni to come back! It's hilarious, really. You see - well, remember at the very end of True Colors, that weird noise? dl-sPirit shot Roni with the chibi gun! XD

Raimundo: (waks in) Hey, where's everyone else?

Ferret: Either yelling at dl-sPirit or tring to convince Roni to come back!

Raimundo: Where? And where's the popcorn?

Ferret: (shrugs) I dunno.

Raimundo: ...can I have a pudding cup?

Ferret: If you do disclaimer!

Raimundo: WHAT!

Ferret: (sticks out tongue)

Raimundo: d-sPiritldoesn'townXiaolinShowdownthankGod. Now gimme a pudding cup!

Ferret: (tosses Raimundo a pudding cup) Here ya guys go!

"We should be safe – for a little while," Clay said as he sat down by the roaring fire. Minutes after crash-landing, Omi had found the small cave, a perfect shelter. Building a small fire, Clay had helped bandage Jack's wrist and a small cut on Kimiko's face. Dojo was slowly recovering. But, for now, there was nothing left to do.

Except to wait.

"Jack, I'm curious – how come you were at the temple?" Omi asked, looking at the evil boy genius. Kimiko also wondered about this – but she was still slightly preoccupied with Raimundo. He laid on the cave floor, either asleep or unconscious. It was hard to tell. Otherwise, he seemed perfectly fine.

"Well…" Jack looked around. "Um…real estate?" He heard a snort from Clay and frowned. "Ok, so I went there to steal the shen-gong-wu – but that freak and her little boyfriend-" He pointed to Raimundo "-got there first and tied me up! Then that thing comes and tries to kill me! This is the worst night of my life!"

"Freak?" Omi asked.

"Yeah, her, um…oh yeah! I think it was Roni!"

"How do you know her name?"

"You probably wouldn't believe me…"

--

"Wuya! Wuya, where are you?" Jack wandered through the large house, still wearing his pajamas. He had just woken up. Usually, around this time, Wuya was already harassing about focusing on world domination while he poured his Fruit Loops. Strangely, he hadn't seen her yet. Maybe she was in the basement? But why?

As he passed the basement door, he heard two voices. One was Wuya; the other was unfamiliar. So that's where she went. What was she up to? He backtracked, stopping in front of the door, and swung it open.

"Wuya! Where have you been?" He shouted, walking in. He topped, still at the tops of the stairs.

Wuya was talking to some beast with red eyes and large wings. The first things Jack noticed (after he got over the animalistic appearance) were the jagged scar and the fleshless ankle. She was wearing some sort of gloves – made of leaf, maybe? He was too far away to tell. For a brief moment, there was silence as he stared at the two – and they stared back. Then-

"Vut?" the creature asked. When Jack didn't reply, it turned back to Wuya, and continued, "Vell, een sse'en monffss, eet'll be time." Wuya nodded, then gestured to something on the table besides them. "How did you get them, Nahkti?" Jack looked at the table – and saw a long blue sash and a pair of boots. Normal objects or shen-gong-wu?

"Eet'ss Roni, damnit. Dem, dough? Vell, Dashi didn' hide 'em too vell." A smirk unfurled across Roni's face.

"Wow, I didn't know the evil knitting club met in my lab," Jack remarked with sarcasm. This creature was freaking him out honestly, and he wanted it gone. He ducked, though, as a Jack-bot head came flying at him.

"Git out," Roni hissed. Jack didn't need any more prompting as he dashed out. Maybe there were some more Fruit Loops in his bowl…

--

The three Xiaolin apprentices stared at Jack. "You mean, she gave you the Third-Arm Sash and the Jet Bootsu?" Clay asked, trying to comprehend the whole idea.

"Yep! And I haven't seen her since," Jack replied.

"Until now… but what's so special about tonight?" Kimiko wondered, looking skyward. Omi, also curious, walked over to the bag of scrolls. Master Fung had mentioned earlier of a rare astronomical event occurring – but what was it?

"So, Kimiko, who's the ninja dude?" Jack suddenly asked, pointing at Raimundo. Clay and Dojo looked at Kimiko, now curious as well. She certainly knew him – they had seen how she kept looking at him, hoping he would wake up.

"Well…" Kimiko started hesitantly. "It's Rai." Clay's jaw dropped in shock, while Jack snickered. "You guys have lousy luck or something, then," he said through his snickers, "Not even my partners double-cross me this badly!"

Before Kimiko or Clay could reply, Omi suddenly shouted, "Earth is aligning with Pluto! Opening the gates to Oblivion!" he waved the scroll around. "That dragon must have been banished by Dashi!"

"But what is it?" Kimiko asked, grateful for Omi's outburst. The longer they stayed off-topic about Raimundo, the better. The Dragon of Water paused, then started digging though the scrolls again.

"The gray one, I'm pretty sure was Shixuede." Everyone stared at Dojo. "Shixuede. The Bloodthirsty One. When Wuya ruled the Earth, in exchange for sacrifices-" he shuddered "-Shixuede made sure everyone knew Wuya was the master. She even tainted the first Dragon of Light to the Heylin side." Kimiko paused at this. Nahkti had been swayed by a dark spirit to the Heylin side – almost like Raimundo. Both never really fit in at the temple, which caused them to leave, and were taken advantage of. They were so similar. Maybe that was why Roni chose Raimundo to help her – either that, or because he resembled her boyfriend so much.

"And the dragon?" Omi prompted, bringing Kimiko back to Earth. Dojo shivered – not from cold, from fear.

"Wulong Shiyu Siwang – the Black Dragon of Death. Even Wuya feared him. If he wasn't given at least three people a day –" he shuddered "-it was horrible. So horrible…" Dojo's voice cracked. For a few seconds, it was silent. Then, taking a deep breath, the green dragon continued, "Dashi and Wuya actually teamed up to defeat that thing. Afterwards, Wuya double-crossed Dashi. Still…it was the only good thing she had ever done. And Dashi never forgot that. Afterwards, he always believed there was a little good in her…"

For several minutes, all was silent. No one was quite sure what to say. They were dealing with demons even Wuya feared? That wasn't good.

Kimiko looked over at the unconscious brazilian. "Kami, I hope he's ok…" she said, sighing.

"I don' get it." Kimiko turned back to the Dragon of Earth. "I mean, a month ago, you were ready to tear him apart. Now, you don'. What happened?"

"I learned the truth, that's what." The retort left the Dragon of Fire's mouth before she could think about what she was saying. Omi's brow furrowed as he asked, "The truth? What do you mean?" Kimiko sighed. This was going to be a long story.

"Ok, well, remember when Master Fung gave me the day off because I was hurt? Well, I went into Raimundo's room…" Slowly, the entire story came out: Raimundo's letter, his visit (she decided to leave out the song), the secret room, and how he had warned her. By the time she was done, everyone else had been stunned into silence.

"…We cannot allow Raimundo to die, then!" Omi declared, once he found his voice again.

"I don't mean to be a Johnny Raincloud, but he's hardly breathing," Jack replied, rolling his eyes. Clay looked at the Dragon of the Wind, thinking. Then, he said, "Well, maybe if we took off that mask…" He walked over to the brazilian's nearly-still form and kneeled. Ever so carefully, he tugged off the dark cloth.

And Kimiko gasped in shock.

Raimundo: (reading ahead, unaware that the chapter's over) HOW CAN SHE DO THIS TO ME!

Ferret: Creative licensing.

Raimundo: I now officially hate fanfiction...

Ferret: Hey, you didn't read THIS, did you?

Raimundo: Oh...ok, now that's better- (realizes chapter is over) Oops.

Ferret: Oh...um,read and review! Now look at the pretty red light thing I stole from the MIB guys! (there's a flash)