Ages of Shadow

by Eduard Kassel

Years after falling to the darkness, Jade Chan has finally been defeated by the J Team and their allies; and been banished. In defeat and isolation Jade Chan must face a challenge like nothing she has ever encountered before. What lies in wait for the fallen hero in the millennia that stretch before her? What shall she lose and what will she become, in the Ages of Shadow?

10. Age of Dreams

Disclaimer: I do not own Jackie Chan Adventures.

Betaed: by Zim'sMostLoyalServant

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Age of Dreams

Jade smirked as she slid the sword back into the black rock veined with red. She turned at the sound of metal clattering to the ground. Kratos had discovered the sword Jackie had been carrying was just the faker hilt Giorgios had used on them at Athens stuck in a sheath.

"NOOOOO!" the mad Greek god screamed, running up the broken steps toward Jade as the sword began to glow.

"My favorite part," Jade thought, smirking. A thunderbolt split the sky, striking the furious, shirtless man and poofing him into red mist.

"So much for the Age of War," Jade said, patting the pommel of the sword as it turned back into stone. The red sky faded back to blue, and as she watched, Tohru emerged from the woods, dragging the three mooks in a net, and Viper was visible on the next hill over with a harpy beaten to the ground.

"Chalk another one up for the Chans," Jade proclaimed, giving Jackie a thumb up as he dusted himself off. Jade brushed her hair back from her face and pulled out a scrunchy. Her butt-length hair had come out of its tail earlier and was going all over the place, but at least it hadn't been cut — she had taken a long time to not just get it this long, but keep it nice and spiky.

The Interpol people should be here soon to slap the cuffs on everyone and…

A figure stood at the tree line, staring up at her. A man in a black suit with black tie all in black, with short black hair and matching sideburns. But his black skin caught the sunlight with an unnatural sheen, and his eyes… they were glowing red.

Jade blinked, and was about to call out to Jackie, but the man was gone.

"What?" the prepubescent girl stuttered. Suddenly she felt a good bit colder than victory should make her feel.

X X X

It was at a quaint little Albanian diner, or whatever the word was for it, that she next spotted the shadow man. Apparently back in Kratos' day this was part of Greece, though as Jackie kept reminding her, Greece was not a country but a "cultural linguistic region etc whatever" back then.

Anyway, with the baddies packed off, they had turned down Interpol's offer of a lift to get a start on that European vacation they had planned at the start. And this had been the literal first place to start.

Jackie and Viper were making lovey eyes while trying to not not be clear as doing it in the corner booth. Tohru was going through a fistful of maps that could finally be used for their original purpose, and Uncle was ranting to a very bored and unimpressed-looking teen waitress.

Jade was more impressed by the waitress than the food. That was a full-on Uncle rant induced by bringing him coffee instead of tea. And her response was to just look at him with a look that very calmly said she wished he was dead. Giorgos had actually tried to kill them and never pulled off a death glare half that good.

But Jade was feeling a bit stir crazy, so with everyone occupied, she slipped away from her finished dish of what she could not pronounce, save pronounce it as good, and slipped clear outside. It was beautiful out. Other than the hotel, a mechanic shop and gas station, a store and a few houses that made this speck on the map, it was wilderness. She found it pretty perfect just now, civilization but not too much.

Why exactly did so many people want to wreck the world anyway, she wondered, looking up to the sky, letting the sounds of the sleeping village and the nearby woods enfold her.

She was being watched.

The man in black was there, she knew it before she saw him. He was leaning back against the far corner of the gas station, visible only as a silhouette and his red eyes squarely fixed on her. He moved, and she thought he tipped up his hat with one finger. And then, pushing off the building, he went around the corner and out of sight.

The night felt a lot less friendly, and Jade hurried back into the comforting atmosphere of her family in the diner.

X X X

The next time she saw the figure she had taken to calling the Shadow Man, as Dark Man just didn't seem to fit, was in China about three months later. An oddly low key adventure — Jackie had actually successfully ditched her from an adventure involving that monk from the Lotus Temple, and she had ended up smack dab in a panda-poaching operation.

Sure, poaching was bad, of course, but hardly the evil they usually dealt in. Granted, the guy in the purple jacket running the operation had been one for the album. That cueball wasn't interested in profit. He called himself an environmentalist and claimed he was helping the environment by killing off endangered species because the Earth thrived off survival of the fittest.

Yeah, apparently that was a thing? Maybe? Anyway, she had been herding the five panda cubs through the pass lined with conifers and mist rising, when she felt him.

He was down on one knee, looking down at her and the cubs at the head of a goat trail or something leading out of the pass. Nothing she could take the bears up, but enough for her if she needed. He hadn't moved, and she noticed his skin wasn't skin, it looked like scales, very fine ones. Not the strangest thing she had seen, but an affirmation he was something supernatural and not just an illusion.

But she heard Purple Coat yelling nearby, and so spurred the bears on to spring her trap.

The Shadow Man had not vanished that time. He had not moved, and with her last look back before he was out of sight, he was still there on one knee, watching her go.

X X X

She had fessed up to Jackie after that. He was not pleased she had not told them sooner. Neither was Jade when she thought on it. Why had she kept it under her hat?

Uncle had of course done research, and found nothing. Her nickname and his eyes and black clothing made the Shadowkhan a possibility. But the Red Mask was intact, and no other leads appeared.

Uneasily, they settled in to wait. And bit by bit, as the Shadow Man did not show and adventures piled up, it got kicked back down the list.

X X X

His next appearance was in a very old mansion in the countryside of Ukraine. Viper had become one of the victims of a curse from the local goblin king. Hershel of Ostropol, a Jewish hero, had apparently gotten the better of the local goblins, not only sealing them but tricking them into sealing themselves, making them a laughingstock of the dark forces. So long story short, it was a curse of sleep unending for all the descendants of Hershel, including Viper, and the king out to free his armies by freeing the seven goblin lords…

Anyway, this manor supposedly held the journal of Hershel that had been snatched up by some Soviet bigwig in the forties. And of course it was haunted.

Jade had ducked into this room to dodge the ghost of a bearded Cossack, and there was the Shadow Man, seated in a slightly ripped overstuffed chair across the room, and sipping from a can of Coke, of all things. A fire burned merrily in the hearth, letting her see for the first time his scales were actually a shade of blue.

Fire aside, the warmth was sucked out of the air, and she tore the door open to run back into the hall.

X X X

The littlest yet very strong goblin duke had nearly ripped out her hair. Three times! Jade was massaging her scalp and blinking through puffy eyes as Tohru tucked away the now occupied jar. She had taken to calling them kosher jars, but Tohru insisted that was not the right term. Well, the fat goblin 'had' been afraid of pickles.

And her poor hair! How dare he!? No one, not even the Demon Sorcerers had ever… Her hair was very long, and no one had ever grabbed it? Hak Foo she could practically hear calling out "Wolf grabs rabbit by ears" or something.

Frowning, she pulled her mass of spiky hair to look at. Hadn't, hadn't it been short at some point? No, at her age it wouldn't be so long if she had shorn it down since meeting Jackie.

Then the ice cream truck exploded.

X X X

Each time he appeared, she expected that to be it. For him to step forward and reveal his scheme as the big bad or to unleash his dark master or something. But no, instead he just seemed to stalk her.

She started keeping a journal of sightings. Marking the date, where and what he had been doing. Also, she stopped reporting it. When he made a move he would, and then they would deal with it. No sense stressing Jackie and everyone out to no avail.

And so it had gone. She carried the notebook with her most everywhere, and first chance after each encounter wrote it down. Even keeping a list of when he was just staring or doing something like eating or drinking. One time, she had even seen him playing Donkey Kong in a retro arcade while she and Jackie had been chasing a pair of sugar-crazed imps through the mall.

At some point, that cold willy feeling of him watching her had become expected. Almost welcome. The Shadow Man stalking her. Not Jackie or the rest. And no one else knew. She felt almost possessive.

But also impatient. How long was he going to keep her waiting?

It was New Year's Eve, Hong Kong Moose World, where she had seen him by a service exit as she made her way to the little girls' room.

She had hesitated, and then ran toward him.

He opened the door and slipped through the doorway. That was a bit surprising — she honestly thought he would phase through it or something. But no, she reached the door leading out to a pretty large but ordinary loading dock with several semis parked nearby. And there he was across the concrete, between two pieces of ornamental shrubs likely meant to obscure the utility area from this angle.

Jackie was calling. Jade looked back into the party crowd not even ten feet behind her. The Shadow Man raised an index finger to his lips and turned, walking away into the field beyond the hedges.

Her notebook was heavy in her hoodie pocket. This could be just another entry if she turned around now.

She didn't want just another entry to read over.

He stopped in the well-mowed, slightly rolling hills on this side of the park. Hands behind his back, he was lit by fireworks rising sparsely, hyping the crowd for midnight.

She had been running for a bit, but as he stood there waiting, she slowed. Looking back to the park, it occurred to her how alone she was. Alone with the Shadow Man.

When she was a few feet away, he took off his hat and put it to his chest. His smile showed off surprisingly human teeth.

"Finally. I knew you would come, but I was getting anxious. Though it's been much longer from your perspective."

"Who are you?" Jade demanded.

"Me?" he asked. He actually seemed a bit taken aback, and glanced away for a moment. He was smiling when he looked back, but it was fake, she noted dryly. This was not going as expected.

"I am Jack," he said. He held out his free hand in a left-handed handshake gesture. Jade looked at it and glared at him. His smile withered and he sighed, putting his hat back on.

"Jack, really? That's the best you can do? You're becoming less cool by the minute," Jade griped.

"Cool? I had hoped you had come because you were taking me seriously," he said.

"So what's the pitch, then? World domination? Avenging some slight by mortals? Or are we doing the time travel thing?" Jade asked.

"I am not a villain," Jack said flatly. Jade frowned and looked back to the park.

"Not buying that — if you were a friend, you would have done something like say hi. You've been stalking me for…"

"How long?" he asked.

"Awhile," she waved off. He smacked the waving hand and Jade gasped, leaping back and taking a martial arts position. He did not follow up and instead adjusted his hat while frowning at her.

"No waving it off. Haven't you noticed time passing?" he demanded.

"Time passing? Cha. Of course. Races against the clock, school, breaks not being long enough," she rattled them off.

"And yet so little changes," he noted.

"What are you even talking about?" Jade demanded. This had gone from disappointing to confusing. The Shadow Man, Jack, frowned at her and narrowed his red eyes.

"Think! How long does one of those grand adventures take? How many have you had since meeting Jackie Chan?"

Frowning, Jade looked away and saw a purple burst light up the north side of the park.

"Dark chi?! Jackie!" Jade said. She nearly ran into Jack, who was blocking her path.

"You lured me away! It was all-!"

"I didn't come so many times 'because' you were preoccupied. It wants you distracted. Your focus in the wrong direction."

"Move, or I will whoop your butt."

He did not move.

"Do it. I dare you. Because if you do and rush off you will find some adventure lying in wait. Maybe another epic quest. Or just another one time villain, or minor villain back to earn another paragraph in their article on the wall. You rarely go two weeks without some kind of adventure, right? An epic quest a year. When was the last time Jackie had a summer with no villains like that one time?"

"That's…" Jade said.

"That notebook. I have seen you record me in it. Dates too. Look, really look," he pleaded. She didn't want to take her eyes off the Shadow Man, but she did.

She opened to the first entry, Kratos' defeat. Day and month clearly marked. No year, but that wasn't needed. She flipped through and found herself back to the same month. A year had passed? The notebook was still thick with paper.

Jade tore through, only checking the dates, watching months come, go, and come again. By the time she reached the last and only blank page she had stopped trying to keep track of years.

The book fell to the grass.

"What? But that's not right," Jade mumbled, tugging on her hair in its tail.

"You haven't aged either. No one has. No new game systems, no real news. How many holidays? And still Mrs. Hartman? It's like the Simpsons, right — the show goes round, but they never go anywhere. Your parents' absence, and that long hair I know you didn't have, and I think you do too. Come on, you have all the pieces," Jack said, kneeling down to look her in the eyes.

"…FAKE!" Jade screamed, pulling her long hair out by the root. The sky broke and the ground with it. Jack cried out as something grabbed him and pulled him between the emptiness in things. Jade blinked as the world glowed purple and broke apart.

Her eyes opened, looking up at white tile. Ceiling, a glance to her left showed a hospital room, private suite. Next glance revealed Tohru sitting on two chairs, dozing off, wearing those stupid hipster glasses.

Jade tried to speak, but it came out a gargled croak. It woke him up and then sent him to ground as he saw her smiling at him.

X X X

"NOOO! FRAAAACK!" Jack screamed as the purple energy forced him back from his mother's side.

Though the profane energy played over her, he could see it was not penetrating her. That spell was deep, but it was not getting any support, as the shadows coiled around her even now.

"Foolish boy. All that effort and she remains in my claws," the demon spoke through its magic.

X X X

"Thank you for coming here with me," Jade said as she knelt on the paving stone and breathed in the incense. Uncle had chosen the stick, but the scent seemed too harsh to her. The air had a chill today, and even here the sounds of Hong Kong reached you. Though it did not feel like an intrusion. It seemed fitting for the city to be muffled but still present in this cemetery.

Uncle shifted on his feet beside her. Glancing over to him, she saw him looking over the rows of markers. She supposed at his point in life, these places had a different impact. When he finally spoke, it was soft but still scratchy Uncle.

"I think I understand why you needed to come back here. In a way you lost him twice. Aiyah. Uncle is not sure he would take it as well."

"What, no boast about how much you lost to toughen you up?" Jade joked, without mirth or malice.

"Loss can't be measured, nor grief. Uncle knew two men once who had been enemies since long before Uncle was born. They grew old in Uncle's time and seemed to grow only more bitter. But while they weathered the loss of so many dear to them, it was one of them dying that drove the other to grief."

"…Is that supposed to be sad, or a lesson?" Jade asked.

"It's a story, make it more if you want," Uncle said.

"Why here? Did he tell you?" Jade asked.

"No, I learned it when the will was read like the rest. Whatever his reasons, he did not share. Perhaps it was only an idle fancy he never remembered to change. We don't always get answers, Jade," Uncle said.

"I don't know what I was expecting," Jade said. She reached out and put her hand through the smoke, feeling its warmth around her hand before she touched the inscriptions with her fingertips. It was in no way the fanciest marker in the yard, but it was not a cheap, unremarkable one either.

"Sometimes we just have to do things to do them," Uncle remarked.

Jade stood and blinked, looking to the city skyline.

"It's time to head back," Jade told him. Uncle simply nodded his head and let her walk past him. He took a final look and joined her.

Together, they left the resting place of the ashes of Jackie Chan.

X X X

Purple energy cascaded down toward Jack. With a clap of his hands, he formed a staff from shadow and, griping it overhead with two hands, caught the cascade, diverting it away from himself.

The defense held but, trembling, the prince was driven to one knee.

"I pulled the thread. She won't be fooled so easily now. She will save herself," Jack ground out. The demon chuckled.

"You know so little, boy. I know her more than you could ever hope to. Hope and dreams are her weakness, and even if she has risen closer to the surface, she will never close the gap. CEASE YOUR STRUGGLES, GIVE IN!" the demon's thundered, his voice sending dust tumbling down from the ceiling.

"Underestimating our mother. Will be your downfall."

X X X

Jade tossed and turned on the futon. Was it that she needed a real bed? There were motels she knew that weren't too bad. Because this was getting ridiculous!

Getting up and tossing the blanket aside, she flipped on the lights and took a seat behind her desk. Her office was nothing fancy. A pretty standard desk with a computer, a file cabinet and small safe in the corner, and two fake plants. Her overnight bag was on the desk, of course, and there was the futon she had been using.

Leaning back in the chair to the familiar squeak, Jade rubbed her eyelids.

"Aiyaaaah. What is wrong with me?" she asked.

Motel beds? Why not her own bed? She picked up a particular picture frame from her desktop. Three in one, the left showing her and Paco leaving the wedding chapel, the other of two years prior flashing a V for victory and a grin. And the right, an infant wrapped in purple.

She should be home, not here.

Oh, she had tried, but being in that apartment had felt… Felt like she was breaking and entering or something. Just waiting for the shoe to drop. She hadn't been able to stay.

Excuses were made for her; she had been through a lot, they said. She needs time, they said. It didn't change the fact she was failing her family, that Paco's understanding had made her feel worse. Visiting Jackie's grave was supposed to help. But the slayer of Shendu was still not able to conquer the willies of a dream trap.

She stepped out of the office, leaving the door open to spill light into the main dojo room. It was nothing fancy, and that was one reason she liked it. Save for the fact it was adorned with actual Chinese decorations from Hong Kong, it could have popped in from any strip mall or other squeeze-in. With her savings from head of Section 13 and other assets, not to mention Paco, she could have had something grand and impressive. And had quickly realized she did not want it.

By the door, so it would be one of the first things the students would see when they entered, was a framed portrait-size photo of Jackie Chan. A younger him than she had known, as he had few photos in kung-fu attire. Rather ironic, that. Jackie had never cared for fancy trimmings in martial arts. Just as he loved antiques for the history and worth to humanity rather than just outer beauty or dollar value, he had seen kung-fu as the pursuit of excellence of self. Dressing it up in pomp and bling diverted from that.

She simply explained the picture as her own sifu and uncle if anyone asked. She was past trying to brag to strangers about the greatest hero the world had never heard of.

She had sent out an email tonight, putting classes back on, starting tomorrow night. A structured return to normalcy seemed a good start.

Pulling out one of the mats, she stepped to it and took her stance. The motions flowed smoothly. Her loss from the coma had been remedied, it seemed. Stepping off the mat to the cold floor, she took a moment to appreciate the sensation, wiggling her toes.

Yeah, the place felt normal, real. After more than twenty years of adventure and secret agencies she had not gotten sick of the extraordinary, but she had been… sated.

Fulfilling so many ambitions before you hit middle-age could probably wreck some people, and could have her. But instead of looking for another mountain, unless you counted motherhood, she had decided there was nothing left to prove. So why not stop trying to climb and start trying to live?

Maybe the two weren't exclusive, for most people. But as Jackie had said, Jade's problem and virtue was she didn't do things by half anymore. All or nothing, with too little moderation. And she didn't see pursuing adventure and excitement at all costs ending well for anyone.

She marketed it as martial arts for young girls, without actually saying so. Her business here. Not that it was an official policy; that would be uncalled for. Any student of any age willing to learn, and able to pay, she would teach.

As for targeting girls rather than boys… well, she just felt that, even today, girls on average more than boys needed a bit of an extra push to dare to be awesome. And as she was doing this as much for time than for profit, she had low rates, so a lot of the kids were not from very well-off families.

Egads, she was making herself sound like some charitable soul, out collecting for a worthy cause. Chuckling at her own thoughts, she turned away from the darkened storefront to find herself facing the wall-length mirror for help with stances.

That turned the chuckles to sighs. Rather than dodge it, she walked over and looked herself in the face. She wondered if everyone expected to age wonderfully like an actor that went their whole career never having to fear the camera. Or was that just her vanity?

She didn't look 'bad', but she definitely looked like a Chinese woman in her thirties with stress lines and other signs seeming to creep a bit more every day.

She lifted her left leg off the ground smoothly, but admitting there was a discomfort and tension there that wasn't with her right side. The index and middle finger of her left hand, well healed but still feeling stiff in cold weather now. She had been pushing her body to the limit since she was a preteen, and with no Dog or Horse super medicine for some time, the toll was starting to tell. Nothing she couldn't ignore, but a traitorous voice whispered that time would take interest on them, and others would come. After all, as awesome as Uncle was, he had been Jackie Chan before Jackie Chan when he was young. She was at her peak, and the ledge was in sight.

She had lost most of her office flab, she admitted, looking down at her body. Resignation had been good for her physical health, too. But not all of it, no not all of it — even as her muscles soaked up power anew, her body had refused to go back to being in her twenties.

And currently, her attempts to lose the pregnancy weight had been thwarted by her coma. Never mind that the kid had been around six months prior to the coma.

Never mind. She was Jade Chan, she wasn't going to lose a night's sleep because of something so mundanely stupid as feeling sorry for herself for feeling old when she was still young.

X X X

Daylight made everything run smoother. She had run to a nearby breakfast place for a proper breakfast, too. Not American Chinese food, you get the real stuff here. She had disliked that as a kid — she had wanted the exotic, including what Americans thought of as Chinese food. But today she wanted something a bit deeper.

Deeper, was that the right word for it? Ugh, she still wasn't escaping the effects of her all-nighter, was she?

Turning on her heel, she watched the class of eight carefully. This was one of the advance classes, the committed. Students who had either joined her tutelage from another sifu, or that had grown under her. She gave instructions, made her corrections, and her thoughts grew smooth.

The day passed before she knew it. Lost to pleasant haze of productivity. And the predictable cases of delinquency amongst the youngest students. And she put one advanced student in his place by tossing a brick into the air and breaking it with one kick before it hit the ground.

Yeah, still awesome. Let someone come and say otherwise, she had thought, giving a grin to the students that Jackie would likely have facepalmed at.

X X X

Viper had dropped by as she was closing up shop. Slipped in, more like it. Jade had gone to lock the door and found the older woman standing along the back wall, admiring a decorative scroll hanging from Taiwan.

The former thief was aging as well as Jade wished she was. Hardly looking much older than Jade now. The short hair, currently styled into spikes with neon green tips, didn't help.

A hobby that Jade found very dorky, Viper's hair exploits. The short hair made sense, as she had shorn it down after that incident where the Dragon Warrior had grabbed and swung her about on it. Her dubious styling choices had been a game started by letting the twins pick her new style. Jade just wished Viper had tired of the absurdity as quick as the kids. It made her former idol look like a dork trying to pass as hip.

But dorky or not, with depressing ease Viper had dragged her to a local bar and parked them both in a booth.

The server came to their booth and put down their drinks with a clink. Jade picked up her glass and smelled the mixed drink. Or tried too; she gagged a bit at the atmosphere. Cheap tobacco! Viper, as usual, seemed unaffected, taking a deep breath and then taking a magnificent sip. And it was magnificent, basically declaring to all that she knew exactly what she was doing here and how to drink that. Jade felt like she was going to drink out the wrong side of the glass or something. She should have just ordered a glass of wine.

"Why did I let you order my drink?" Jade demanded.

"Because you never go to a bar except when I am in town, and you're even less likely to try a new drink," Viper said, taking another sip. Jade groaned as Viper raised her hand, signaling for another pair of drinks later.

"Gee, glad I agreed to pay," Jade remarked. Viper shrugged and slouched back in the booth, looking unfairly at ease.

"So, Jade, hurting your wallet aside, any particular reason you reacted to me showing up like bad news?" Viper asked.

"Maybe I would like a call before you just barge into MY space?"

"Nice try. But you have never had that hang up. Or respected that hang up in others, come to think of it."

"Fine, that's true. But I am guessing Paco or Uncle called you down here to give me another lecture or speech about how you understand what I'm going through?"

"Actually, it was Tohru. He felt you needed girl talk or something, I guess? So I bummed a babysitter off Wisker to watch the twins and caught a flight down here," Viper said.

"Hmm, they still trying to be the next Jade Chan?" Jade asked.

"Veronica is trying to be a rockstar now. But James still fancies being an adventurer and is afraid technology will take the adventurer out of adventure before he gets the chance. All I know is they both still seem to have inherited a trouble magnet gene from Jackie," Viper said. She frowned in an amused way.

"Who knew there was so much crime and supernatural stuff in Oregon?" Jade nodded. She vividly recalled that weekend trip she took the kids on. A few laughs at the one-eyed man in the fez's tourist trap, she figured, and what did she get instead? And weren't dinosaurs supposed to have feathers or something now a days, anyway?!

"They still want to go back to that town you took them to next summer," Viper teased.

"No way, that shyster scammed me out of six grand. Somehow," she admitted. Though she would not admit it, she was impressed and puzzled on how he was legally able to stick her with that bill.

Hmm, maybe a return trip would be worthwhile for another round with the old man. Surely he had to be hiding something she could arrest or blackmail him for?

"Though I guess we should get down to it, kid. Why are you hiding from your family? Because that seems to be what you're doing, camping out at the office," Viper said, sliding her glass away.

"I am 'not' hiding from my family," Jade stated, meeting the other woman'a eyes.

"…"

"…I think, I think I am hiding from my life?" Jade confessed. Viper didn't frown and narrow her eyes, she nodded and took a sip of her drink before speaking.

"Well, at least we're seeing honesty. So, can you explain this to me?" Viper asked.

"Well, if we're being full disclosure, nothing has felt quite right since the coma curse. Before you say it, no, it's not that I believe that was reality. Looking back, it just made no sense, really. Like any dream, it's full of holes when you look back. But I did believe in it while I was in it. Completely, until…"

"Until the monster named Jack," Viper finished.

"Yes. Whatever he was, he pointed out the holes in my dream and made me unable to not see them. I awoke myself, saved myself, but he made me realize I was a prisoner."

"Jack wasn't a person, Jade. Uncle and the docs agree he was some manifestation of your own suppressed awareness," Viper said.

Jade frowned, tucking her hair tail back behind her shoulder. There were times she regretted her wonderful long hair.

'Didn't Jack say something about my hair?' Jade wondered.

Realizing Viper was waiting for her to keep talking, Jade gathered her thoughts.

"Well, anyway, Jack's not important," she lied before continuing, "What matters is how tricked I was. I mean, I believed in that world, that life. Can I be sure about this life this world? Ever since I woke up, it feels like wearing a shoe that doesn't quite fit right. Close enough that it seems it should, but it doesn't. And with Paco and the baby… I just can't help but feel this is not my life when I am with them."

"Oh, Jade," Viper put her hand over hers and patted it. Jade shuddered at the gesture; it felt better than it should have, she thought.

Was she crying?

The two sat there in silence for several minutes, neither making any noise aside from a few sniffles from Jade as she let the tears fall. Finally, Jade managed to compose herself, grabbing a napkin and using it to wipe her face clean.

"Sorry about that," she muttered.

"It's fine," Viper replied, sounding sympathetic yet nonjudgmental, "Look, kid, I can't pretend to understand what you're going through. But I do know that wallowing like this, shutting yourself off from everyone and everything, isn't going to help."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Jade asked.

"Well, I'm no therapist, but I've gotta figure at the very least, a change of scenery will help," Viper suggested, "You know, get away from all of this and get a fresh start somewhere else."

"Like you moving the twins up to Oregon?" Jade asked.

"Exactly. Jackie loved this city, and it would have been home with him. But sometimes, you need to get away from what you had to be able to move forward. It's worked for us, it may not work for you, but-"

"Yeah, but I can't just go on like this," Jade agreed, taking another sip of her drink. She watched as Viper traded the empty glass in for her own second.

"You could always move to the same town we've settled in. It's no big city, but it's not in the sticks, either. The twins would love to have you around more, I know."

Jade frowned, accepting her own second drink.

"What about being on call for S-13?" Jade asked.

"You'd be no more unavailable than I am if something big happens. And we both know the Agency has taken huge strides under your leadership, and has not fallen down with you resigning. Maybe it's time you backed up that faith you say you have in them with action?"

Jade swished her drink, thinking through the pungent aroma. Move to that town Viper had settled down in? She loved travel and the diversity of the world, but she had always seen herself as a city girl. Able to enjoy anywhere, not like a "city slicker", but the concrete jungle being the habitat she called home.

But if the life she had known wasn't working, maybe that dramatic change would let her finally move past this angst block?

"Though I do have to warn you about one thing, Jade," Viper said solemnly. The thief sat up straight and met her with a steely gaze.

"There are a lot of single women in that town. And in case you have forgotten, Paco has become one fine piece of charming, big Latin man," she said seriously. Then licked her lips, almost laughing while raising her glass in a mock toast.

Jade flicked the glass with her finger, almost knocking it out of Viper's hand.

"Including you? Eyes off the meat, cougar. I saw him first!" Jade challenged. They glared at each other, even baring teeth, before slumping back laughing.

X X X

"I needed that," Jade chuckled, leaning on the side of the building. The sidewalk was well-lit, but slanted. She was buzzed, wasn't she, Jade thought, pushing off and resuming her course for the dojo.

Yes, which was why, despite the cunning new plan, she had not called Paco. That would wait until morning. And the best part was that for the first time in, how long? She was looking forward to going to bed.

"Cougar. Ha! But it's true, isn't it? The Viper has sprouted legs and fur and stalks the night for essence of maaaan!" Jade cackled. She grabbed a streetlight to twirl around the corner on the sidewalk. And almost ate cement for it. Bracing herself against the metal, she looked out, watching the world tilt.

And Jackie Chan stepped out of an alleyway to be illuminated by the next lamp in line.

"Wha?" Jade asked. The world seemed to snap back into place, and Jade practically hugged the pole.

Jackie looked at her with a slight frown, and stepped back out of sight.

Jade blinked and shook her head, but the buzz didn't return.

"What the f-!?"

X X X

She didn't call Paco the next day.

The day was spent with the full roster of scheduled classes playing out. She ordered a small pizza for lunch. By the time she was dismissing the last class, the sun had come and gone without her setting a foot outside the building.

She had seen Jackie Chan. She had not been seeing things, in fact when she checked the alley and finished the walk back, she had been stone sober. She had not heard of shock making you sober. That alone meant something, she noted, writing it down on a piece of paper on her desk. But what, exactly?

She hoped Viper wouldn't show up; she had even turned off her phone, feeing very averse to any intrusion on her privacy right now.

And Jackie… That had not been Jackie Chan, the father of two and husband to a former jewel thief. He had had as much grey as black in his hair, amongst other changes. What she had seen was classic Jackie Chan, like when she was a kid. Even down to the khakis and blue shirt.

It reeked of magic, and if it hadn't announced itself, dark forces were the likeliest option. So why had she not called Uncle and/or Tohru?

As her stomach growled, the only consolation she concluded was that her funk seemed to be gone, or at least suppressed by the mystery. Selecting a delivery place from her list, she dialed and ordered on autopilot as she thought it over.

Something was going on. If she accepted she had seen that and it wasn't booze, then either spirit of the dead, unlikely, or an illusion. But if an illusion, to what purpose? Trickery would be better served by a more accurate illusion, right?

Food arrived with a knock on the front door. She had paid by credit, tip in advance, so the delivery runner was long gone, the paper bag of aromatic goodness resting on her kung-fu welcome mat. She was surprised at the name on the tag — she had not been to that place in ages. So, it was still in business. She should take Paco there sometime, she decided, retreating to her office.

She had ordered a feast, naturally. She was too hyped to diet right now, and if adventure was on the horizon, she was going to be burning plenty of calories. Licking her lips at the simple pleasure, she pried the lid off the noodle soup container. She downed it all in one pull, relishing the heat nearly burning her throat, and the sensation of the noodles-

"*Gack*" Jade gagged as something caught in her throat. Trying to gag left noodles hanging out of her mouth and broth falling out to land in her lap. Hitting her chest, trying to breathe, she tried to stand up as her throat remained blocked, and fell to the floor.

'No! You can't be serious! I can't possibly die like this!' Jade raged in panic as she put her fists together and struck her neck with as much strength as she could muster. The obstruction came loose and filled her mouth. Her tongue forced it out to clunk on the floor. Spitting noodles and broth out, Jade rolled to her back, taking ragged breaths.

"FUCK," Jade muttered. After a few minutes of reveling in sweet oxygen, she sat up and rubbed her throat; probably was going to bruise. Had that actually worked? Dang, she was both impressed and certain that was not how you were supposed to save yourself from choking.

Then she saw what had nearly ended the awesome life of Jade Chan in a very lame way — glittering greasily in the office light, the Rooster talisman laid on the floorboards.

"No. No way," Jade whispered.

One Hour Later:

The pencil rotated end over end in the air. As Jade watched, it stood up point down and lowered itself back to the counter. Narrowing her eyes, Jade released the pencil, letting it fall over with a clack. She looked up to see Uncle and Tohru staring with wide eyes and slack jaws.

"Yep, it's real," Jade said to them, holding up the talisman again.

"AIYAAHH!" Uncle yelled, grabbing his head.

"How?" Tohru whispered, sweating visibly, "Shendu reabsorbed all the talismans. With he and Drago evenly matched, they were supposed to be locked in eternal war in the Netherworld forever."

"I hear ya, T. But this showed up in my soup, with no explanation," Jade shrugged, tossing the talisman up and down.

"What soup? From where?" Uncle demanded.

She told him, only to drop the talisman when she was reminded that place had been out of business for eight years.

X X X

"I would feel better if we put it in the Vault," Wisker said over the line. Jade rolled her eyes, patting her pants pocket where Rooster was stashed. She stood in the main shop area of Uncle's Rare Finds, talking on her secure cell, having left the wizards to research.

"Well, Captain Wisker, I respectfully disagree. Putting a Talisman in the Vault is the natural thing. Make it harder for dark forces to steal or for anyone else to find and abuse or be a danger to themselves and others. All that jazz. But this talisman was delivered to us from a cold trail. It's quite possible this is a trap, with us putting it in the Vault being exactly what they want."

"So your claim is, by not putting it in a safe place you are being… safe?" Wisker said.

"Wisker, you were my pick to succeed me, and you have loosened up so much over the years. But you have never been able to bend your thinking around corners and through the air ducts like I can."

"Yes, I am sadly still hobbled by a commitment to rational thought."

"And we love you anyway. So keep me posted of anything unusual, I'll be keeping it on my person for now. The shop may be the actual target, so if it's just with me, risk is minimal," Jade said, slipping out the door.

She closed the door with the Rooster, smiling as she turned away to walk down the sidewalk. Honestly, she had never understood why so many people saw the talismans as best locked away. They weren't evil like the demon chi, the masks, or other powers. In their natural state they were forces for good bestowed on noble animals. Locking them out of sight, it was like choosing to cage wonder out of fear for the hypothetical.

"I don't know how you got here, but I am glad to see you," Jade decided, patting the lump in her pocket.

The dawn was breaking, Chinatown shifting from night to day. She had been occupied for quite awhile with wizards and Wisker. Stretching out her arms, she pondered canceling today's classes in favor of sleep.

"Wait," Jade said, stopping in her tracks. Her stomach wasn't growling when she backed up to the storefront of the bakery she just passed. No, it was the tiny stand-up sign next to a fresh-baked pie that caught her interest.

The doodle showed an angry sumo next to the characters that read "Angry Sumo Pie".

"Hmm," Jade muttered, and after a moment's consideration, stepped into the bakery, the door bell jingling merrily.

X X X

"Okay, maybe I should take this a bit more seriously," Jade admitted. She sat at her desk, a messy knife in one hand, a destroyed pie before her, and a messy talisman in her other hand.

"Eggs and Bacon talisman duo, together again," she remarked.

That was two talismans. Wait…

A small heat blast shot from her left eye, fast charring a chunk of pie.

"Yeah, real. So not only talismans appearing, but they appear in shoutouts to the first quest? Why? A message?" Jade wondered.

Troubled, she went to the bathroom, washing her hands and the talisman. Stuffing it in her free pocket, she splashed some water on her face for good measure.

"Yeah, no classes today. Someone is up to something. Did anyone call Paco? I'd rather not, but someone needs to call him," Jade muttered, stepping out and drying her hands on her pants. Spotting the mail in the slot, she grabbed it before heading back to the office. Just junk for the business and a bill from the utilities and…

"Chan, Jade, open on arrival?" she read. It looked normal, but this usually went to her home address.

Slipping her finger into place, she ripped the envelope open and was surprised to find behind the front a hand-written note. The paper was lined and raggedly edged, like it had been torn from a notebook.

'Jade,

'You are being watched. Pep Brothers Plumbers van across the street. A one-eyed homeless person by the back exit.

'Expect a phone call at nine o' seven. If you refuse to comply, they will move on you.

'If you want answers, come to where you first flew.'

Jade frowned at the letter.

"Okay, I think we have lost cabin pressure, ladies and gentleman," Jade said. She gave a giggle that sounded unhealthy even to her.

X X X

Jade stood at the railing of the bridge, looking out over the harbor. Cars drove by, breaking the monotony, and likely a few wondered if she was planning to take the plunge.

"Ha, crazy or not, I'm not one to opt out," Jade chuckled.

"Glad you came, Jade," a familiar voice called out. He didn't suddenly step into sight; he was lit up by cars and the other lights, and came closer one step at a time. Seeng him, Jade thought she would have preferred one of her own jump scares. Preferred it to the surrealness of someone who shouldn't exist strolling up, hands in pockets like it was the most normal thing.

"Jackie Chan, I am meant to presume?" Jade asked.

"That's me. I am a bit surprised — I thought it would take more for you to agree to meet. That's very good," Jackie said. Then he rose up into the air with a cry, before gaining his bearing and looking at Jade.

"Really?" he asked. Jade smirked, and he floated over the tall guard rails and then down to face level with her through the metal barrier.

"I have had quite a time lately. So no more cryptic crap. If you're really Jackie or something, or even not, give me a straight answer or you go swimming," Jade said.

"Fine. You're still trapped in a dream spell, Jade. It's a double dream, trapping you by the belief you have already woken up. Though I am guessing you figured something was very not right to come to me. After all, in the first dream Jack had to spend a lot more time poking at things. I can also do more than he did, it's weaker," Jackie remarked. Jade threw him back to her side and looked down on him, hands on her hips.

"Well, that wasn't cryptic, so points for that."

"So you believe me then? That this world isn't real?" Jackie, if he was Jackie, seemed stunned. Jade cocked her head and glanced to the side.

"The single biggest hole to your little theory is the idea I would dream a life like this for myself. Whatever or whoever you are, I get the feeling you know things have not been so hot for me," Jade remarked. The seeming Jackie gathered himself into a near meditative position and seemed to consider her remark.

"The first dream was your 'childish' desire, I suppose. The simple, even understandable desire to defy time and keep the so-called good times rolling. You overcame that, and trying to trap you again with that would likewise be doomed to fail. So perhaps this dream is your insecurities? An overreaction to guilt over the childish honest desires. Here you try and move on and be the mature person you feel everyone wants you to be, but both fail at it and are miserable?" he proposed.

"I'm not doing that badly. And anyway, none of this answers where the talismans came from," Jade pointed out. Jackie chuckled at that and stood up, putting a hand in his left pocket.

"None of this is real, Jade. Pulling any remaining talisman out of this pocket is just as likely as George Washington pulling a Ferrari over and starting to sing about crossing the Delaware. What truly matters is what 'you' feel can happen. I think you missed the talismans, which is why I was able to bring them into this world. Two already found their way to you."

"Okay, assuming you are telling the truth, what would I need to do? Click my sneaker heels and wish my way back to Kansas?" Jade remarked.

"No, realizing was enough the first time, but this dream is stronger. It's actually defending itself, like with the Agents and Tohru. You need to defy it more directly."

"Okay, straight answer, or it's laps in the bay," Jade demanded.

"Okay, okay. I don't recall you being this impatient. It's that battle you think Jackie Chan died in-"

"Wait, you're saying Jackie, er you, aren't dead?" Jade interrupted.

"Oh, sorry. I am dead. Very much so. Just not that way,"

"…So, are you really Jackie then, as a spirit?"

"I think I am. I may be the spirit of Jackie Chan helping you from beyond the grave, or I'm just the part of you that refuses to be deceived taking the strongest form you can think of."

"You don't know?"

"I did… I'm sure, but it's hard to remember things before I started this mission."

"…So what about the Nameless Evil?" Jade said.

"You have to open the sub vault it's locked in. That's your way out."

"…"

"Well, maybe not literally — maybe there's a door in there, or a key. Maybe you have to fight the dream literally in there. But I know with certainty that you going through that door is essential," Jackie admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

"Aaand done," Viper's voice broke in. Jackie jolted and then cried out as he was struck over the head and fell to the pavement.

Viper appeared in an eye blink, wearing the Snake talisman.

"So, it's some cultist scam. Good to know," the ex-thief said. Jade watched as Viper pulled out a phone, and grabbed her wrist before she could begin to dial.

"Viper, where did you get the Snake?" Jade asked. Vier pulled her hand out of the grip with a jerk, but repocketed the phone.

"It was lodged in the sewer wall. Likely meant for you to find, I came across it while trailing you."

"Huh, so you just happen to have the one most associated with you. Though we actually found it in a temple," Jade remarked.

"Oh no, tell me you're not taking what he said seriously! This is a fake, a bad fake! Jade, you may have known Jackie well, but I was his wife! This guy, or golem, or whatever is putting on a show for you. And like Tohru said, the talismans have a hex on them. It's probably making you susceptible to him."

"Then why are you using a hexed talisman?"

"…You can guess why. Eavesdropping to get him to tip his hand, for one. And because with two talismans, if you tried to run I would need an edge. You're asking because you've already decided to fly off the handle, haven't you?" Viper glared at Jade.

"This is too much, Viper. If there is any chance… then I won't just be caged. You guys came after me, remember? So if the obvious is true, stand down and let me take this guy and sort this out. Have some faith in me, as proof," Jade said.

"Kid, you seem to be considering opening a door my husband died to close, and whose opening would risk my children. There's faith, and then there's a gamble you can't take," Viper said. She vanished from sight, and Jade fell into a stance. Eyes closed, she listened. Viper was quiet, and the traffic continued by, drowning her out even more.

Jade lashed behind herself with the Rooster talisman, and Viper cried out. Jade turned on her heel and saw the scuff and motion as she pressed Viper back against the barrier.

"Poor choice, Viper. You have more experience using that talisman, but I have fought against it as well. And it's only strength is stealth; once revealed, you're just mortal. Rooster is much more versatile," Jade said. Her boasting was dry, and she found herself shaking her head at it. Viper turned visible, expression dark and clutching the talisman.

"Yeah, should have gone for the front. Friends hit in the front," Viper threw the talisman at Jade. Despite the awkward position, it was a great throw.

Jade admitted the Rooster's big weakness was thought; you could only use it as quick as you reacted or decided on something. So overpowered as it could be, it was only as good as you were. So the sheer shock at anyone throwing a talisman away kept her from simply deflecting or stopping the talisman before it struck hard into her left cheek.

"Ow!" Jade cried out, flinching and closing her eyes.

Something clattered to the ground. Jade blinked away the pain and focused on the sound; an epipen was on the ground.

"Well Jade, guess we have to kick this up a notch. But I knew we would," Viper said, as her ears extended and golden fur sprouted on her cheeks.

"Viper, that potion. It's harder to reverse each time, you've used it three time already and it was almost-"

"What do you care, if you decided we are just dreams, you self-centered little brat!" the feline Viper roared, dashing forward. Jade's eyes ignited with Pig power and she rose off the pavement.

X X X

Cheap motels were a cliche for laying low. But with good reason, Jade decided. This was a place she had known an Asian woman carrying a grown man into a room with no questions asked and paying twice the going rate would not even raise an informant's eyebrows. And it was not a bolt hole she would normally use.

She laid Jackie on the bed and sat down in slump next to him. How long had it been since she had eaten? She wondered if this was a place that kept a mini cereal box stashed in one of the cupboards? Or heck, just a cup of cereal?

The answer turned out to be no. Though a condom was to be found. Not used, thankfully, but she still refrained from touching it.

It was times like this Jade wished she smoked. In movies or stuff in situations like this, the badass lights up a cancer stick to think clearer and probably give them something physical to focus on. She had no tea, and exercises were not sounding good.

She sat down by Jackie on the bed, and it creaked under the new weight. Cheap, like everything here. If she needed to use the bathroom, she decided it would be better to go to the nearest gas station and use theirs.

So she was quite relieved when Jackie stirred.

"Wake up, sleeping beauty. This prince is not going to kiss you," Jade snarked. Jackie sat up next to her and rubbed his head.

"I don't suppose you brought an ice pack or something?" he asked.

"Well, if this is all a dream, would it even matter?"

"Good question, but even a dream can have rules- You believe me?"

"I'm intrigued enough to fight Viper and take the Snake talisman from her to hear you out. And it was the Sheep you had in your pocket. Good for spying," Jade remarked, patting her pockets.

"I see," Jackie said. Jade leaned over to look at him. Really look. He leaned away a bit.

"Are you actually looking younger than me? If so, that's not fair," Jade declared.

"You should have met enough people by now to know looks can be a terrible way to gauge age. And you still look younger."

"In the dream or real life?"

"I don't know about your real life, Jade. I know Jackie Chan is dead and that you are trapped here. Whether you are some old woman and the Uncle, er Aunt, of your time, or still young, I can't say."

"You know, for being the agent of revelation or something, you draw a lot of blanks," Jade said, getting to her feet. Crossing the room, she stuck two fingers between the blinds and parted them slightly. Nothing but late night traffic out in the parking lot.

"Viper took the Cat of Khartoum potion. Likely made herself a catwoman for keeps with that move. The twins won't mind… well, not much. They are old hats in magic, but that really changes what Viper can do or be. I'd really hate for her to throw away her humanity because I was stubborn in being conned," Jade said.

She didn't let herself shudder here, where he could see. She just looked at her hand on the blinds, recalling her own two dances with that potion. It offered power and grace of perfection. But it demanded your humanity, not just in appearance but in outlook, in how you interacted. You didn't cease to be, you but became another you from what you were as a human.

"You know, I have been through that transformation run before. Nearly every time I have been tempted, but I always came back. Maybe that's what makes me Jade Chan, bold enough to want to explore but too stubborn to settle for being more or less than Jade Chan."

"You weren't tempted by the donkey," Jackie pointed out. He was smirking when she turned to glare at him.

"Ghost or figment, you should know I made you all promise to never speak of that," Jade stated.

"Heh, well, as for Viper, I'm not surprised. The dream is fighting, and it's not just with fists. Viper making such a sacrifice would of course make you doubt your course. And does it really make sense for Viper, a mother, to do such a thing when there were less radical options? You may think of her in large part still as the daring thief, but surely she is more the mother, a single mother at that, from where you stand?"

"Okay, that actually makes some sense. But what exactly is this course? Open the door? I may be awesome, but S-13 is no longer the place where the big bad can just bust in to jumpstart the next quest. And they know I know all the little tricks and secrets. Truth is, I might not be able to get to that door if I wanted to," Jade said. She was pacing now. The worn rug offering little traction, she had taken her socks off earlier to get just a little more comfortable. Her feet were snug, feeling the texture and space inside the shoes.

"I have a little something for that," Jackie said. He leaned forward and reached under the bed. He pulled out a set of bandolier belts, eight talismans strapped onto them. Jade stopped pacing.

"Okay, if this were a movie, I would whisper to my guest in the next seat, 'Plot Hole!'. And if you planted the Pig in the pie earlier, for shame. It was the Tiger in the pie; the Pig was in Bavaria," Jade whispered.

"Maybe you're pushing back against the dream now, too. Weren't you just thinking you could do it with the full set?" Jackie pressed, ignoring her comment bout the pie.

"…Not now. Nooo. Too soon. Maybe a few quests for a bit? You know, to feel out the conflict? I mean, it doesn't have to be globetrotting, just around the city for a few weeks. I mean, lots to offer here, eh?"

"Jade," Jackie interrupted.

"After all, we don't just rush to the end, there are procedures-"

"Jade!" Jade shut up at his raised voice and turned to look at him with surprise plain on her face. Jackie nodded at her attention.

He asked her a question.

The answer was no.

In 30 minutes, they were in a cab heading for a phone booth.

X X X

The Phone Booth. It probably wasn't the last one in the city, but to Jade it warranted capital letters regardless. Once a mundanity to the fantastic, it now held a certain whimsy. It had been her idea to make it a two-bit touristy thing for people to take photos with. Along with the urban legends of it being a doorway to a secret government compound, the underworld, an alien spaceship, and such. In this day and age, cover-ups had a certain limited value. So instead of trying to silence or obscure, you fill the air with noise and the eyes with phony visuals until people can be staring straight at the mystical truth and just chuckle and shrug, moving on convinced by the stream of falseness it could not possibly be real.

Jade had tried to get herself an alias as "the Magician" to pay homage to her tactics of misdirection. It never took.

"Well?" Jackie asked from behind her. Jade breathed out and ran her hands over the talismans strapped across her torso.

"Is it too late to say I'm too old for this?" Jade asked.

"…"

"Yeah, thought so. Surprised there's no welcoming committee," Jade said, looking about the darkened, deserted street. No traffic, either. Had they used the detour protocol?

"Why bother? Out here, you could easily get away with talismans. They want you stopped and captured so you can be made to accept this reality. No need for a sortie when it's you who needs to besiege them," Jackie said.

"So, probably everybody down there. Maybe even some of the less dangerous or evil villains. Armageddon alliance, and all that. So, I take the ones on the right, you take the left?" Jade asked, tapping her chin. Jackie stepped up to her side and put a hand on her shoulder.

"None for me, I am afraid. This is as far as I go." Jade froze and lowered her clenched hand to her side before speaking.

"Seriously, you're bailing on me? Making me doubt you're Jackie now. He'd never send me alone."

"Yes, I'd rather face anything alone than have you in danger. Even when you surpassed me, I never stopped at least partly wanting to put myself between you and the danger. But I'm dead, Jade. Ghost or figment, I'm here for your past. And the past doesn't fit through that door, at least not the past that propels you forward. The past can give you guidance when you need it. It can give you useful, even vital, tools. But it can't fight for you. The past is past, that's its nature. This battle to reclaim your present and unlock your future, it's on you Jade," he said sadly.

"I don't suppose you could just watch. Moral support?"

He shook his head and took a step back.

"Bah, you must be a ghost. I'd never imagine this, and no fake would have Jackie do this to me. Tear it all down and make me pick up the pieces alone. Way to break a girl's heart, Jackie," she grumbled.

"I can't tell if you are being sarcastic," Jackie said. Jade stepped into the booth and activated it.

"Good luck, Jade," he said. Jade gave him a hand gesture in farewell, gritting her teeth.

X X X

Jade stepped out of the phone booth into S-13, eyes to the floor. Looking up, she took in the sight, and her eyebrows rose.

"Jade," Tohru said, standing at the head of an army of allies and enemies.

"Well, I don't think there's anything left to say at this point. So let's get right to it. Start with, dragon," Jade said. The Monkey flashed on the belt, and Jade's newly formed mass slammed into the barrier Tohru threw up with a clap of his hands. Good barrier, but a dragon plus an Ox strength boost and with Rooster throwing her in addition to flight was too much. The barrier cracked and burst.

"Change back!" Jade said, becoming human again and jumping down in the midst of the defenders.

X X X

Jade stepped back from the claw swipe ripping into her face.

"Stop that!" Jade screamed in frustration at Viper as her face grew back. Viper only hissed at her, stepping over Iso's battered form. Her jumpsuit had completely shredded now, and she was not even trying to stand straight. Jade guessed she had gone full feral. And so grabbed her with the Rooster, lifting her off the ground.

"If you were in your right mind, you would have gone for the talismans, not my face. I kind of hope this is a dream, because the real Viper would not have sacrificed her mind for power when facing me with all 12 at my command," Jade said as she raised her hand, coated in dragon flame. She was done with this kitty getting back up! S-13 was littered with the beaten forms of friend and foe. And talisman god mode or not, she was not having an easy time subduing them all without killing anyone!

Over her flaming fist, she frowned at the struggling woman turned animal. Something about Viper's situation was troubling. More than it should be. After all, even if this was real, the feral state didn't last — a solid nap and she'd be a fully functioning woman cat again. So why-

Why the chanting, what was that chanting?

Throwing Viper hard against the nearest support column, Jade turned and saw Tohru standing amidst the fallen, a knee-high urn before him and waving a puffer fish and wrinkly cucumber. The greying sumo was chanting. Not Chinese or Japanese, Jade noted. Smirking, Jade dispersed the dragon magic.

"Really, T? We went through this already — sealing evil only works against card-carrying dark forces or those with their power. At worst, I'm misguided good," Jade shook her head and watched at the mediums and vessel started to glow… orange.

"Orange? What is, oh no. OH NOOOOO," Jade shouted as the urn lifted to reveal a wire grating over it. Jade's hand snapped up, firing off a blast of Dragon fire and a ripple of Rooster power behind it. Orange smoke blew out of the urn and swallowed the attacks.

"That broken alchemy!? But that spell didn't even work!" Jade objected as the orange vapors engulfed her. The air turned sticky, the vapors condensing on her.

Jade tried to rise off the floor, but her feet were stuck in her shoes, which were stuck on the floor. She stood there, glaring as Tohru coated her in orange gunk, five stings of it leading back to the urn.

"Yes, it didn't do what Kranasan hoped. But it can strip you of the talismans and seal you in a liquid state until we can find a way to deal with you," Tohru said. The first drops fell from Jade's chin, and Jade rubbed her chin with the back of her hand, feeling the missing bits.

"TOHRUUUUU!" Jade screamed as she collapsed into orange goop that was pulled along the streams toward the waiting urn. Tohru sighed in relief, grabbing the floating urn in one hand for safety and grabbing the talisman belt and Jade's clothes as they hit the filter. As the last of Jade passed through the grate and the strings crumbled into dust, Tohru slammed the cork into place, driving the grate into the urn. Going down on one knee, he braced the urn for the struggle as Jade would throw herself about inside.

The urn was still in his grasp.

"Jade?" he asked, looking at the pale blue urn and to the silver plug serving as a cork. Steam rose from the seam as it was sealed tight.

"I see, playing possum so I will panic, think something went wrong with the spell, and open the urn. Clever, Jade, but I know you too well," Tohru said. The urn remained still, and Tohru let himself slide into a sitting position. As his eyes threatened to close, Viper got up. Eyes wide, he watched her try to stand only to instead go on all fours, padding over to him through the wrecked corridor.

"Are you in your right mind?" Tohru asked. His glasses now lost and probably destroyed in the fight, he had to squint.

"Yeah. So you did it. Wasn't sure you would be able to. She can't even see in there, like Shendu could. And will we ever be able to trust her to be let out? Lots of people could use all the talismans and not do what she just did," Viper said, standing with wobbling legs to put a hand on the plug.

"One problem at a time. Besides, even if she is trapped there for ages, it will be better than her and the world suffering the Nameless Evil being unleashed."

"So you can hate yourself forever so long as you can say it was for others?"

"Yes. It's the most important lesson the Chans taught me. It's not about me, it's about us," Tohru sighed.

Then Viper ripped the plug off, and dropped limp to the ground, as the orange goo burst out.

"WAAA-" Tohru managed before the goo was upon him. It wrapped around his head, forming into a crude sphere. Tohru bolted to his feet and clawed at the muddy substance. But it slipped through his fingers, sealing and then trapping his left hand. By the time he went to one knee trying to find one of his magic conduits blind, his movements were growing sluggish. He was feet away from the nearest magic that could have helped him when he collapsed. The orange goo flowed off his head and down to his chest, wrapping around the torso.

Only once her squeezing had him breathing again did the goo flow to gather up the talisman belts, stroking the Sheep tenderly with a tendril and Jade's clothes. Stacking upon itself Jade reformed inside the outfit slowly, her head coming together last.

Spitting to the side, she cracked her neck and regarded the scene.

"Well, that's that. Hmm, maybe it's the Dog talking, but it was actually very soothing to the old body to go invertebrate for a bit. Sheesh, no wonder people can think I'm crazy. I get into some weird crap. Still though, that was a close one, if I hadn't abandoned ship with the Sheep before I was sucked in he would have bottled me just as planned," Jade said. The thought of being trapped in darkness for who knows how long made her shudder. She reached out braced herself against the wall, frowning at this strong reaction. It seemed senseless; after all, she had escaped, there was no reason to freak out! Finally she stilled her body enough to stand up straight and turned to stroll down the corridor.

Only one elevator led down to the Vault. She had jammed the entombment protocol early in the battle. Uncle was slumped against the elevator door where she had left him earlier.

The retired agent frowned down at him. She hated to see him unconscious, period. Asleep, his vinegar and noise was absent, leaving him looking so… old. And she had worked him over.

"Just a tad to be safe," Jade whispered. She knelt down in front of the chi wizard with the broken glasses, the Horse talisman glowing faintly on her belt.

She grabbed his right hand before it could touch the Rooster.

"Sneaky old goat!" Jade laughed. Uncle opened the unswollen eye and glared, sending her smile running away for cover.

"Why bother? One more thing, either Uncle is dream and his injury or death mean nothing. Or he is real and you are doom bringer even without darkness," he snapped.

Pulling him away by the foot, she left him down on the floor and pressed the call button on the elevator.

"Good advice, Uncle. But it doesn't seem very in-character. So I will be going down."

"One more-" Uncle yelled at the ceiling before the doors cut him off.

By her reckoning, there was only one obstacle left. Slumping against the elevator wall, Jade hoped she was wrong about what it would be.

X X X

Getting into the Vault wasn't the problem, and that worried Jade.

Her backdoor, built in secret to everyone when she had the facility overhauled, had been in place. She had suspected a day might come when S-13 might be compromised and she would need to raid her own Vault. Now here she was, watching her breath steam in the cold air. Yeah, there was a good reason the AC was always cranked up in here. Search her if she could remember it.

It was a far cry from the spy movie old Vault. This was more of a prison block, though some of the cells were the size of a fridge box. And they were all awake. And they all seemed to know what was going on.

Many were terrified. The Nameless Evil horrifying them, and pleading for her to stop or for some hero to appear and stop her. Whatever would come, they were certain it would be worse than their sealed state. Others welcomed the idea and urged her on. Not out any fondness for the Nameless, but a hatred for the world inspiring them. They seemed especially pleased she had opted to be the one to do it. And finally, there were the furious ones. Angry that someone else would do what they had failed to do to the world.

She wanted to tune them out. Say it was just a dream. But the voices kept coming, and she could not bring herself to rush through with Rabbit speed. Because there was something else left. These losers were not the final obstacle, they were window dressing.

A door separated this main block from the Final Block. Two rooms, the further one the best cell science and magic could provide. Jade had it built long before they had a Nameless Evil that needed to be sealed away. She had them make it because she was sure someday they would have to lock away a nightmare beyond what they had faced thus far, and would not have ancient seals to rely on.

Hadn't she come down here sometimes, just to sit in that empty cell with the door opened? Why? She had been depressed about her job and life even before losing Jackie, hadn't she? Paco and the family had helped. Hadn't they?

She didn't want to open the door. She did anyway, sending it rolling aside on its slides.

Paco stood between her and the final door. So handsome, with that neat goatee to look more mature, wonderful eyes. Great body, and that stupid "Amigo" T shirt she forbade him to wear outside the apartment.

And a bundle wrapped in purple, squirming in those strong arms.

"Oh crap," Jade said, pressing fingers into her forehead.

"Jade," Paco greeted her. He looked well, like he was all freshened up to go out. She likely looked a mess, from battle and then being melted and unmelted and all.

"So, this is Uncle's last resort? Fight you in front of the kid? Cheap shot. You have your old mask stuffed in a pocket?" Jade asked.

"No mask, Jade. It's back in the apartment in the same box as the rest of my luchadore mementos. That's where it belongs, where we belong. I didn't come here to fight. I came to ask you to come home. It was a mistake to let you brood alone for so long. I wanted to give you space, but that space became rope for you to… It's not too late. Walk out of here with me, with our child, and we can work through this. I know how hard it is to let go. When I gave up my mask, I thought I was letting El Toro's memory down. I realized and accepted that as proud as he was of me taking my own mask, he would never want me to chose it over what I truly wanted. What I needed."

"And what if what I want deep down isn't this family, Paco? What if under the grief this was just me running and making commitments that were beyond me?"

"I don't want to believe that, but I could accept it. But this thing you are doing? You are waging war on your family and friends. Can you truly see this as right? Is this who you are, Jade Chan?"

"…Not waving the kid in front of me, I can respect that."

"I brought our child to remind you, not as a shield."

"And you're getting my name right. I don't recall you ever doing that. Wasn't it always 'Yade' coming from you?"

"People can change. We can change together."

Jade walked up to him and his grip on the kid shifted, anxious. But she only brushed aside the cloth a bit to get a look at the sleeping innocent.

"Beautiful."

"Si."

She put a hand on his cheek and he smiled. She closed her eyes and her lips quirked up.

"What's the kid's name? Jackie asked, and I didn't know. Not even boy or girl."

Paco stared at her, jaw dropping a bit.

"Yeah, guess I couldn't imagine having a kid as I was back then enough for a name. Or if I wanted a son or daughter. Though even you… Fact is, Paco, deep down I knew you were better than I deserved. My saving grace was that I wasn't about to curse you with me. This family here, it's the most unbelievable thing in this dream."

Dropping her hand back to her side, she walked past him to the final door.

X X X

Reaching back without looking, she triggered the inner vault door to close. It cut off any sound from Paco or the infant.

The infant. Yes, that had never taken, that memory of giving birth, for some reason. She remembered it, but like something she watched. Paco, his words had been dangerous, the guilt. But that? It had not grabbed her.

She let herself slump against the door. No, not Paco, just a dream of him. Like the rest.

The first dream, it had been honest wish fulfillment. Like a wish to return to glory days, or for the good times to roll forever. This one, the theme was more… reality? She had rejected reality easier than the senseless dream, it seemed. That certainly said something about her.

Jack, and Jackie. Jackie said they weren't the same, but they were about truth. Not reality, but truth. The difference… she had never been one for the big grand questions. Her question and answer pedigree had been like puzzles and Scooby-Doo whodunnit.

Hmm, she thought, pushing off the door and looking it over. There was no way to open this door from the inside. So if she really was crazy, this was her tomb. Only she could open it, and she was inside.

Never mind that, it was too late to second guess. Either freedom from a false reality or die here a pathetic broken soul.

Then she noticed she was not alone.

"Wow, if this is my head, where did this come from?" she asked.

When nothing came rushing out to eat the universe or whatever, she had assumed the Nameless Evil was just a hoax. That this was the exit door from the dream or something. Waving away the odor, she took in the other occupant of this tailor-made prison.

The size was the first thing she took in. It towered over her, almost like Tohru when she was a kid. Though as it was serpentine like Bai Tsa, she guessed height was optional?

No, it was a her, four breasts. Freaky. Huh, no nipples, she thought, squinting at the mounds of black scales that moved up and down as the she-creature breathed.

Also four arms, she noted. The upper pair looked fairly human, while the lower pair were too long and thick to fit that description. Similarly, the face had the general shape of a human one, but everything else was wrong. There was only one eye, for starters, which sat smack in the center, right above an animalistic snout.

Oh, and there was also the mass of snake-like growths covering the top of the head in place of hair. Well, not snakes, she realized as the things moved like they were suspended in water. Tendrils, a smooth sharp blue color in contrast to the black scales covering the rest of it.

She waited for it to move, for the creature to act. But it just stood there, breathing. Raising an eyebrow, Jade started to walk sideways. No reaction. She got up close behind it, and still nothing.

The creature was no slender monster girl. It was thick-bodied in a more matronly manner than Tsa ever was, giving way to the long tail that was thick enough that the part first touching the ground went up past her waist and then tapering off to a tip that looked no thicker than a pencil.

Holding her nose, she stepped away from it and the odor. The smell was like sweetly spoiled food scent mixed with sharp chemical odors. Alone, she had the feeling she could take it in stride, but together…

"What are you?" Jade asked, coming back in front of the she-creature. No answer, not even a reaction.

Frowning, Jade extended her index finger and poked it in the belly. It was soft enough to give way some, but Jade flinched.

"Hey," she protested, waving her hand to get rid of the heat. No burn, she decided, looking at it. But she picked another spot and held a fingertip close. Not touching the scales, but she could feel the temperature change.

"Like sticking my hand in a fridge. What?" she muttered. Shaking her head, she turned her back on the enigma and looked around. This may just be another distraction, she realized.

Was there a danger of the dream breaking in? Or had that world vanished into a whiteout once she closed the door on it? Yeesh, even if it was a dream, that was disturbing to think about.

The room was covered in burnished steel plates, the floor, walls and ceiling all uniform.

"Where is the light coming from?" she wondered.

Things went dark.

"Well, crap," Jade said. The only light left was provided by that eye. And it was more than you would expect. But for her purposes, she needed more.

The Pig talisman could be used more variably than people gave it credit for. In this case, igniting her eyes after just a few seconds of adjustment basically let her see by two hands-free torches.

The Enigma, as she dubbed it, seemed a dead end, so she focused on the walls and ceiling. It was a long time looking over them for any standout. Twice she stopped to sleep, dousing her eyes.

She was getting thirsty. She had a canteen slipped into her jacket out of habit but rationed it. No food, though. Eyes doused, she went to sleep by the red light of Enigma's eye and the sound of her steady breathing, and woke to no reason in particular.

It was to the right of Enigma's almost comically small tail tip that Jade found her aberration. An empty bolthole. The plates were bolted in place, magnificently too. So flush and blended that calling it bolting seemed an insult. But she could see now the pattern, the spacing. And it would do most people no good.

But she had the talismans. Rooster to work them out enough to finally get a grip. Ox for strength. And the Horse healing her cuts as her grip slipped. Cleaning the blood from the many tiny cuts to keep her hands from getting slick was the only real problem as she patiently worked by Pig light.

Finally, the last bolt for this plate came free and she lifted it away. To reveal…

Comic panels. Or a storyboard? It was a story laid out in images, for sure. One she knew well.

After all, it was her story engraved into the wall. And at the edge leading away from Enigma, there was a crease in the concrete. She ripped the next panel away, and the story continued. Thread in hand, she followed the story, the old and familiar captured well enough in the panels for memory to fill in the rest.

Then the steel ripped away to show something new. A villain catching everything, everyone in his web. Her left mocked and defeated. Jade Chan humbled and broken before an evil she could not defeat.

No memory, but it rang of truth, and she saw it unfold. Her final tearful flight, accepting that she could not win. Hating herself to survive and await the light of the next generation, knowing light must rise in time against darkness. Jade the mentor, the one to pluck the blind and open their eyes. And captured and bound at a key juncture with her dearest wish.

But that was not what happened, was it?

She ripped the panel away and beheld herself donning the Red Mask of the Shadowkhan. She witnessed her downfall, imprisoned beneath Section 13 by the very ones she had saved. Because she had won the battle and lost herself. Then was this Uncle's work, an attempt to reawaken who she had been through trickery?

No.

Another panel, family blood on her hands and only a grin for victory.

An Ox-fueled punch did not dent the wall, it did not erase the image. Enigma was not moved by her scream.

Sleep came at some point as she laid in the darkness. Brief and unrestful. If there was a trap there, she had evaded it by sheer distraction from any temptation.

The next panel revealed the counterattack. The final one not of her howling rage as she was sealed away from all she had known, but her best friend falling to his knees in shame and grief for failures no one placed on him but himself.

"You did nothing wrong," she whispered to the small image of a giant among men, stroking it as if comfort could be given across space and time.

The next panels were a vast darkness, her other self a small thing twisting on itself as it sought to build something to hold the vast nothing at bay. The moment of despair as escape was accepted as impossible. The flocks of serpents. The self glorifying and the abandonment of the pretense of humanity.

Then, shocking even from this angle. Contact. Humanity. Light and others in the midst of solitary darkness. But it was no redemption. And not this tugging current that the king who bore a sword of many colors against her had trapped the dark villain in this dream. That the truth was she was that stand-in for the eldritch horrors befitting a Conan story.

Back to the darkness, and the loneliness. And no, this was not her dream to escape that despair, a cage of her own construction.

Then she was a villain. The Big Bad pulling the strings and dropping hints, emerging bit by bit. Trace was not almost winning the final battle with card magic that trapped her in her truest desire. That was not what happened.

Another current quick on the heels of that one. Desperate?

The King failed at his last retribution. She had dragged the blind girl into the darkness with her...

First, she had vented her frustration on the girl. Then put her back together for more.

But as always, rage was not eternal, and she grew tired of it and decided instead to experiment with her new material. Unhinged whimsy once reserved for herself now was unleashed on another. The Blind One, that was the name given; to make clear her own superiority, she never restored her companion's sight.

Centuries of Stockholm and torment saw a twisted affection arise. And in time, the Blind One's flesh gave rise to copies, each molded into unique specimens. Her enthroned as the Molder, and the Blind One enthroned as the Source. Ever more twisted impossible super structures, and ever questing for cracks to other worlds. The monarchs could not leave, one incapable and forbidding the other from venturing forth for fear of abandonment. But their daughter horrors were free to spill out through any crack large enough, free to seek malicious vengeance on anything that was not of their twisted worlds, as they had been taught.

And cracks too small to slip through could still be whispered through, to plant seeds of madness and ruin in any unwary ear they reached. By invasion or whispered poison, her brood shared her agony and madness with any they could. Worlds became nightmares as malice crept among it. Empires rose or crumbled to insanity that could twist the very landscapes. Other beings of power furiously eradicated their offspring and sealed holes, outraged for reasons she could not grasp beyond territorial squabbling.

And through it all, the Molder and the Source crafted ever more nightmares from themselves in the center of the ever more complex labyrinth built with no exit or reason to its geometries. Loving and hating one another; wishing more than anything the other would vanish even as they knew they were essentially one being by now that could not exist without the other. And that even if they could separate, they feared being alone without the other still more than they hated and loved the other. They were their own nightmare, as trapped with themselves as they were in the very horrors they crafted. Horror and madness piling on itself in ceaseless, thoughtless indulgence, fueled by hate and loss its progenitor could not recall the source of any more than its own name…

X X X

"%*(%(!" Jade recoiled. She must have stumbled back, for she tripped over Enigma and threw herself forward, with a cry at the biting cold in the tail she had fallen against.

"Not real. Just a dream. A very, very bad dream," she croaked. Finding the wall again, she pressed her back against it and pulled out her canteen. She downed the last of the water and licked her lips.

There was no sleep this time. Trying to not think was futile as well. She thought, and admitted where the panels led. Back clear around the vault. The last panel would be the tip of Enigma's tail. Though she had a fair idea of what Enigma was supposed to be now. Not a perfect match, but a relation no doubt.

Jade thought about where this was leading, and what it meant.

That last one, it had nearly gotten her. Sent her into a false awakening. Or had it succeeded, even if only briefly? The nightmare was becoming easier to accept than a dream. And it all lead back to Enigma. The last panels remained covered, but the path was clear.

"I could escape falling into another pit for eternity, but the idea here is I need to climb out of this one too, right?" Jade asked herself.

"What you're trying to say is that you need to not only reject the illusions, but accept reality. Warts and all, it would seem," she said, beside herself.

"Which means what, merging with that… thing. I can't even tell if it has genitals," Jade spat.

"Is that really important right now?"

"Well, you should know!"

"Then why are you asking? No, wait, this is getting us nowhere."

"Well considering our course, nowhere might be preferable!"

"Really?"

"Yes. We need to consider the possibility we are being played. What if the con wasn't getting us to open the door, but to willingly give the Nameless Evil what it needs to rise again. Namely, me."

"How is it sensible to chuck all the the process that led us here just because you don't like the answer to the questions?"

"And is it more sensible to feed oneself to a big monster because a bunch of pictures say its you?"

"…Okay, I grant you that."

"Think about it. We have a freaky coma dream, Jackie not only shows up from the grave but with Talismans that should be a dimension away inside a very angry Demon Sorcerer. And it's all to get us to do something everyone, literally everyone, else says is crazy? This reeks of dark forces. Even this feeling of unreality and not bonding with our own kid could just be dark force magic playing with our emotional state. And these panels? Who's to say Enigma over there isn't faking and set all this up for us, including freaky spells that we have been triggering."

"…"

"Nothing to say? Well, there's another theory. Behind curtain number three is, we are just crazy and our having an epic breakdown and surrendering to that thing is giving up on our identity. Giving up on reality rather than running toward it. We have literally locked ourselves in a box because we couldn't accept reality."

"What about Jack? Where does the Shadow Man fit in all of this?"

"You just won't let that go, will you? Things can come from nowhere, it happens. He doesn't need to mean anything."

"Yet he has stuck in our mind. Not like a dismissible bit villain of the episode."

"Say, did we use the Tiger Talisman? And if so, which of us is the evil one?"

"If we did, I think the balance is showing both sides of the argument rather than good and evil."

"Oh yeah, it can do that. Well, it's been fun, but we're not well, and busting out of this monster hole is the first step to recovery."

"Go if you must, but you need to look at the last panels. Because we both know if you don't, you will always be haunted by them until you fight your way back here."

"I don't need to see crap to know it's in the bag!"

"…

"…

"Hey, you still there?" Jade asked. Reaching out, she felt the spot to her left, and then ignited her eyes. Where had she gone?

"Aiyah! I really am going crazy, aren't I? No water left, either. I have to get out," she groaned, pushing herself to her feet. Her knees were aching, along with her back.

That's right, not a spring chick. And that's okay. It's okay Jade, you can do this, you have the talismans, and you know what to do. Just do it. Get back to your life and let the people you love help you, she told herself.

But there were still panels left. Only a few. And they only covered lies.

Yet could she deny what she didn't know? Had that other her been right and she wouldn't be free of this curse until she took the last punch and got back up?

"Enigma. I am not afraid of you, and I won't lose to you!" Jade shouted, ripping the next tile off. She didn't look, she just attacked the next one. And the next. She pulled them away until the circle was closed and she stood astride the tiny tip of Enigma's tail, feet firmly planted on the ground.

Clenched eyes opened, heat rays flickering and waiting to be burned in them.

And she finished reading the story.

No captions, no lettering, no written labels of any kind. But she knew.

"Lin, Shen, Hebi… Jack," Jade whispered. She fell to her knees and reached out, pressing her hands against the final image taking up an entire panel. The form of Enigma, flanked by Jade's children and numerous grandchildren, a world of their making rising over the horizon behind them.

"Nnnn. Nnnnno fair," she blubbered.

"Can't I just… No? No, I can't. Something. Something is going on, isn't it? I can only remember you four, and not much. But, it's real isn't it? Oh, by all the Lights. Is this really… Yes. And this place. Someone trapped me here.

"Jack. Why would only you to try and reach me? And why leave when I came closer to the surface? Answer. Someone wants me out of the way. The others are stronger, they are fighting, aren't they? That me I become is horrifyingly strong, to be sealed even if only in mind is staggering. And to occupy your siblings… I have been asleep too long, haven't I?

"Are you all already dead?" she asked the image. No answer came.

"I have to go," Jade said to the dream.

She stepped onto the tail of Enigma. It was not slimy or anything, but soft and slick from smoothness. She was advancing in a crouch, straddling the mass by the time she reached the front. Even through her clothes, she could feel the temperature change. But the back… er, topside, didn't seem as intense.

Putting her hands on the black back, she pushed Enigma forward, finally putting her shoulder into it until she practically rolled off with the bizarre creature laid out flat on the ground.

The next part was quicker but more difficult, rolling her over onto her back. But she managed finally, though the tail was hardly in a neat line now.

Kneeling beside the head, she pushed the tendrils away to clear a space. Only for them to slide right back, rubbing against her. Taking off her belt, she tied the creepy flesh hair into a bun. Still it struggled, but the belt held!

"Yeah, that's something at least," Jade said as she pulled the talisman belt off herself, letting her eye ignition go out. There was only the light of the eye again.

"Thanks. You were the first and the best. The beginning of so much. Goodbye," she said to the talismans, casting them away into the darkness. She did not hear the belt land. She felt that beyond this red light, there wasn't even a Vault anymore.

Pulling off her jacket, she cast it after the talismans. Her shirt next. Shoes. Pants. And so on, until she stood naked in the soft red light.

She knelt again, and grabbed the creature's muzzle and yanked it apart. The jaw didn't just dislocate; it was beyond that, and she was glad to not be able to properly see in this light. But when she was done, the black pit of the maw was big enough, and the odor from before made her gag as it wafted out, stronger than ever.

Focus, like Jackie taught you, Jade told herself. Deep breath, letting herself feel herself, all of it here. And stepped into the maw.

It was not easy. Twisting her way around and down, the throat was tight and she cried out at the cold and heat flaring up, burning her. Though worse than the burning of hot and cold was the numbness, first in her feet then rising up as she forced herself down the creature's throat, hands braced and bleeding against its teeth.

The bound tendrils were beating like a wet rubbery drum against the floor.

She hated stopping. She wanted this done, and a part still treacherously wanted to pull herself out. To escape, even if it meant hurling herself naked into the black pressing down around her.

She was more than halfway, most of her chest even jammed down into the horridly pulsing and temperamental flesh. But she had no good angle, to finish it.

"One last time, please? I know I'm ready, but I'm not strong enough," she pleaded.

He didn't come from the darkness. He came through it, the pressing nothing parting to a night in his wake. Shoes on hard floor as if the ground was rushed to form beneath him.

Her eyes were closed, the pain was too much to bear opening them. But she could smell him through it. Picture him reaching down and undoing the belt.

Ah, her mistake; she should have thrown it away like the rest. Stupid. He mussed her hair again, before standing. Her eyes were barely cracked open and the sight was blurred by the veil of night. But they were there, him and the rest, even the enemies.

The body rose as she wished to see him off, her arms dangling, already useless from blood loss and pain as the muzzle closes back into a proper shape. Yes, she can feel it, from tendrils to tail even as she went numb, Jade realized with a sad grin.

"I didn't give you a proper goodbye. So here it is, if this is real and not just magic or madness. Sorry for it, and even if I still have a long way to go. It was wonderful, warts and all," she said farewell to the people that were her life then.

A feeling came to her from that direction as her eyes closed again. As she knew the pressing dark filled the gap anew.

A formless wordless blessing.

Onward.

The tendrils wrapped around her arms, coiled against her head, and pushed. With a sigh of relief, Jade Chan vanished into the maw.

…

…

And sight bloomed anew, through a single red eye, and through a cleared throat roared against the darkness assaulting her.

Yade Khan opened her eye and threw arms out as her tendrils shredded the mass of magic covering her head and back. Roaring in rage at the attack, she lashed out at it, shadows coating and blooming into blades and burning shadows across her form.

The purple false darkness retreated, but a mound of it remained in her chamber. She sensed shadows shifting within.

"My Jack!" she cried out, lunging forward and shattering the mound with a lower left backhand while tendrils seized and shredded every shard of the foul thing. Jack fell into her arms, injured and exhausted but alive, she realized.

"Thank goodness," she sighed, holding him close to her chest.

"Mother," he whispered eyes cracking open.

"I'm here, Jack," she said, holding him close, magic pouring from her, trying to seep into his wounds even as the aura of that horrible, horrible dark magic tried to repel it.

"Awake," he said.

"Yes, you saved me. Rest now," she commanded gently.

"No!" he shouted, breaking free of her embrace, magic pumping through him.

"Jack!" she screamed as he stood before her, wounds nearly squirting blood as he looked at her. All of her hands flew to her mouth at the nightmare of seeing him like this.

"Forget me. Save them! He's trying to destroy everything," he commanded. Then he fell backward, eyes fluttering close. Yade caught him, and her senses reached out.

"Oh no," Yade whimpered, feeling the pain of the world she had crafted. And three familiar sources of power shining bright in her senses. Two steady but strained, and the other…

As her senses closed in on it, the third power surged enough to make her senses retreat back into her own head in stunned fear. And then blew itself out.

The roof of the Sanctuary Palace exploded, and Yade Khan tore through the sky, shadows trailing after her, turning day to night and her furious howl lagging behind her, making the trembling mortals who heard it hide deeper still, wondering what calamity had now come to plague them in this goddessforsaken age.

X X X

"Hahahaha! So that tricky little nerd actually did it? I'll have to kill him very slowly. But maybe this is better," the dragon said, pulling himself from the boiling sands of a dry sea.

"Come on Jade, come and lose so I can make you watch as I ruin everything you have made. Then, I will make you regret you ever heard the name Drago," he chuckled.

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Author's Note:

Yes, finally; I have wanted to get this out for sometime! I decided on a special Mother's day release even though it ended up coming on the heels of the last update. This one I feel particularly fond of as it let us explore some little AUs and shout outs. Also it was good to revisit Jade in the must of Yade's tale both what remains and what is different between the stages of life. I suppose in general it was just a fin chapter to write.

I hope you found the chapter enjoyable and continue to enjoy this strange tale we have here. Long days, pleasant nights and Happy Mother's Day to you all.