"This Kaz seems to be a real threat." Omi stated after his friends filled him in.
"Yeah, with the way they just controlled Clay like that." Kimiko shook her body. The thought of being controlled herself was horrifying. The look on Clay's face, the way he was helpless in controlling his actions...
"Shivering indeed." Omi added. "Although, I am confused."
"About why anyone would want to help Jack, or how good he got?" Rai asked.
"Well, that," Omi replied, "but also, how can one be both male and female?"
Dojo and the other monks looked at each other. This was gonna be hard to explain.
Clay, good southern Texas cowboy he was, was still trying to process it. His hometown, school, and family, had taught that one was either male, or female, depending on their genitalia, and that there were certain ways that they should behave. Sure, his views and beliefs were changing due to his experiences, and he was always one to keep an open mind, but, this, sure he'd heard about it, but, he was just having a hard time with it. He was still getting over his aversion to fighting girls.
"Well, it just happens." Kimiko answered. "Babies don't always... form, along a set gender binary. Sometimes, there's a... (what's the right word) mix-up? Mingling? Blending?"
"I think you've explained it." Rai answered.
Omi processed this. Then it hit, "Oh yeah! Now I get it!"
Jack filled a large bowl with freshly popped popcorn. Kaz's perfect idea was a magical 360 movie in the gazebo. His parents were on a romantic getaway, so they wouldn't bother them.
"Good afternoon, Master Jack." Greeted the Spicer's housekeeper, a kind but firm old woman named Su. Although Jack sometimes found her annoying, she was more supporting than his parents. He even saw her more than them. Sometimes Jack liked to think of her as a great-aunt, but he knew didn't let that go to his head.
"Afternoon, Su." Jack greeted back, "How were the cleaning bots today?"
"They didn't break anything." Su answered, "And the house isn't dirtier."
Jack smiled. Tired of his parents nagging, and the complaining by the family's staff, Jack had made robots to help with chores. The robots needed a lot of updating, and his parents weren't totally pleased, and the servants feared that their jobs were on the line, but everything was fine in the end. The bots did their jobs well, and the staff came to enjoy the extra help, even if they malfunctioned from time to time.
"Well that's good." Jack replied, "I'm gonna be in the Gazebo."
"Ok." Su replied, "Have fun."
"I will." Then Jack left the kitchen with a tray full of snacks, and headed to the gazebo, where Kaz was getting it ready.
When he entered, he saw a rotating love seat with a floating table beside it.
"Like it?" Kaz asked.
"Uh, yeah." Jack answered, then he placed the snack tray on the table. He was unsure of his feelings for Kaz, they were a great friend, but, Jack couldn't tell if he wanted to be more than that or not.
"I got a great magic book for us to watch." Kaz said as they pulled out a shimmering book titled, Early America Volume 1.
"Early America?" Jack asked. He knew all about the Revolutionary War and the Constitutional Convention.
"It's a great story!" Kaz defended, "And you will cry."
"I'm not a crier." Jack said as he crossed his arms.
"We'll see." Kaz sing-songed as they placed the book on a special floating table. "Especially during Volume 2."
Jack sat on the love seat, and Kaz opened the book, and a stream of blackness erupted forth, covering the whole gazebo while music played. Then a purple figure materialized from the book, they looked slightly familiar to Jack.
The purple figure looked right at the pair, and said in a melodic tone, "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman," a family picture of a couple and two young children materialized from the figure's outstretched hand, then it started to change into a map, "dropped into the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean, by providence impoverished in squalor," the map disappeared, and the younger child from the family picture appeared again, "grow up to be a hero and a scholar?" the boy grew up, but their features were hard to make out. Then the purple figure faded as they moved to the left.
A new figure appeared, they were a purplish-brown. Jack knew he had to be familiar, but couldn't quite place it. The figure said while holding a $10 bill, "The ten-dollar founding father without a father," The figure materialized the boy from earlier working his but off writing and negotiating, "got a lot farther by working a lot harder, by being a lot smarter, by being a self-starter. By fourteen, they placed him in charge of a trading charter."
More figures appeared, all telling parts of the early life of some dude, which Jack guessed was Alexander Hamilton. Sure he knew the basics, but the way the figures told the story, and how things materialized, he was invested. Scenes were shown, and when a gray figure mentioned a hurricane, the whole gazebo felt like one, with the loveseat being the calm eye. Then a green figure emerged, and said he was Alexander Hamilton.
Jack had to admit, he liked the guy. And found himself pleasantly surprised when the purplish-brown figure, whom Jack guessed was male, said along with three female figures, that he was in love with Hamilton.
After the intro, the gazebo turned into, what felt like, a 3-D movie, and instead of figures, there were characters in full color. But the buildings and objects were line drawings, their color dependant on who was telling the story. There was an overhead shot of a Colonial city, and two men, who looked like the Purplish-brown figure and a royal-blue figure who appeared after him in the intro, talking to a pretty woman dressed in brown. Then, a man who looked like Purple figure was walking while reading.
A man who looked like the green figure approached him and said, "Pardon me, are you Aaron Burr, Sir?"
The Monks wanted to know any and all information they could get on the Malrics and the Dragoons. Kaz seemed dangerous, and they wanted to come up with a counter attack, should they ever run into them again.
"All I know about the Dragoons," Dojo told the Monks as they were on their way to the Monastery Library, "is that they have originate from a different universe, and their magic isn't Heylin or Xiaolin. It's something else, something that's almost non-existent in this universe. The Morning Larks can control electricity, fire, wind, clouds, weather, energy and the arts. The Night Owls can control other creature's bodies, water, rocks, natural disasters, matter, and writing. The Noon Sparrows can do... all of that. Plus control lava."
"Woah." Rai breathed.
"And how did you learn all this?" Omi asked.
"They can travel between worlds using these special devices called 'Portal Guns'." Dojo answered, "Two of them came here to study long before we got Omi. Their names were Lilith Moon and Samuel Sun. But Moon and Sun weren't their last names, just their middles."
"What were they like?" Kimiko asked.
"Lilith, or Lily, as we called her, was a Night Owl; and she be up until five am, and sleep till noon. Samuel, or Sammy, was a Morning Lark, and he would fall asleep before midnight, and be up at dawn. They were both great students though."
"What happened to them?" Clay asked.
Dojo shrugged his shoulders, "They said they had family matters to deal with, and wanted to spread the knowledge they had gained, and... we haven't heard from them since."
"That is a mystery." Clay remarked.
"I wonder why no one told me about them?" Omi asked.
"They left when you were three." Dojo answered, "We thought you knew."
Jack had never experienced anything like this in his whole life. Sure there was iMax, but that was nothing compared to the Magic Book that was Early America. Also, the story was so gripping, engaging, and catchy. There were a lot of songs, and hurricanes were a common feature. When Angelica was rewinding to tell her side of Eliza and Alexander's love story, the entire gazebo felt like a hurricane, with the loveseat, the calm eye. Flashes of scenes played in the storm's wind, and was just amazing.
Also, the characters shifted from colored line art, to real looking people. And the color of the background changed depending on who was telling the story. Complex characters against a simple backdrop of a simple color, line art, and what looked like watercolor.
And just like Kaz said, Jack was crying. When Alexander and Burr happily played with their children, being the parents Jack never had, he felt a sense of longing. When Alexander's boyfriend died, he cried. Kaz was there for him the whole time, holding him, making him feel like everything was going to be ok.
When the first book ended, Kaz offered the second book. Jack eagerly wanted to see it, to find out what happened next.
"And I thought you knew all about the early U.S." Kaz smirked.
"Yeah, but not like this." Jack answered, "No one ever explained it to me like this!"
Kaz smiled, then they closed the first book, put the second book in it's place, and opened it. Jack was balling by the end. What really got him was Alexander and Eliza's grief over their oldest son's death. Something told Jack that his parents would never grieve like that. And when their oldest daughter went mad with grief, Jack felt especially sad. No one in his life would get that sad. Then there was the ending.
When Eliza burned her letters, her line art had a hard time manifesting. She had a hard time manifesting anything. It was only when she put herself back in after Alexander's death that she could manifest again. And the way she came back, brought tears to Jack's already damp eyes. The music felt hopeful, and a blue figure started forming from the bottom up. When the chorus sang, "Eliza", she was fully formed, and ready to share her story again, show her perspective.
"Volume 2 always makes me cry." Kaz sniffled as they were cuddling Jack.
"Yeah." Jack said as he blew his nose and dried his eyes.
When Kaz felt recovered, they grabbed the book and closed it.
There was something troubling Jack. Something he just had to get out. "Kaz?"
"Yeah?"
"As great and sad as the books were, they got me thinking." He grabbed their hands, "Who's gonna tell our story?"
Kaz smiled, "On Domfran, there's various groups dedicated to collecting and telling the stories of creatures throughout the multiverse. I believe they already told parts of your story from when you freed Wuya to when Raimundo was promoted to leader."
"Really?" Jack asked in disbelief.
"Yeah. And some others took that story, and told a story that they claimed happened in this timeline, but didn't. It was all made up. I believe it was called, Xiaolin Chronicles."
Jack thought about it. Part of him really wanted to know, but another part didn't. Then a thought came to mind. "What if I write my own story!" He put an arm around Kaz, "It can be," He waved his other arm in front of them like a rainbow, "The Genius who took over the world."
Kaz smiled, "That sounds like fun. I can help if you want."
"No thanks." Jack answered, "I'm going to do this on my own."
Kaz sultrary smirked, "Well if you change your mind," they wrapped their arms around him and put their face mere centimeters from his face, "you can always count on me."
Jack felt his cheeks grow hot. Kaz's glasses were off, and he could feel their hot breath coming from their snout. Jack had come to find it fascinating, and a bit adorable. "I know."
Neither knew how long they stayed like that, wrapped in a loving embrace and staring lovingly at each other. But when they pulled apart, they prepared for a sleepover.