Disclaimer: I do not own Jackie Chan Adventures. If I did I would have done something more with the Shadowkhan Jade idea. Though that should be obvious.
Betaed: by Zim'smostloyalservant & MJLCoyoteStarrk
Interlude I
Destiny?
WHAT SHOULD BE . . .
The sounds of battle echoed across the stones, and she smiled. Demons roared and monsters raged while heroes struggled. All the while she proceeded on her waty with calm strides to bring ruin to them all. She stepped out of stone passage into the central chamber.
She was a white speck on the black stone, rays of sunlight searing through the cracked dome overhead. She appreciated the design to allow such a thing to remain hidden for so long. All that work to ensure someday someone would not find what stood upon the altar in the center. But woe to all, here she stood in defiance of all who built.
White boots clacked on the stone floor as she approached the altar; she noted the three statues surrounding it, monks she supposed it to be the three friars who founded the order that built this place. They reminded her of the three wise monkeys though unlike those stoic guards these men twisted in anguish, she could almost hear two piercing screams and a third muffled one as her eyes slid over them.
Stepping up to the altar a ray of sunlight revealed the oroboros on her white coat, she gingerly picked up the tablet. The lead was thiner than she expected and lighter, she could carry it in one hand easily enough. The altar shuddered and she saw a pair of weeping eyes carved there, looking at her pleadingly.
With a bark of laughter she pulled her sword from its hiding place on her belt and sliced those eyes out.
"Enough," a voice called. A smirk appeared on the white clad figures face she turned sword held lazily to regard the arrival through her hair.
"Jade," she greeted. Spiky hair cut short, female knock off of Captain Black's ensemble, save for an orange cloth sash over her chest.
"Jade," the other spat back. Reaching to her back she pulled out a roughly hewn staff, in her hands it began to glow green with chi energy. The Jade in white showed her teeth in a smile as her sword was engulfed in a dark aura.
"I'm actually glad to see you. Annoying as you are there should be some challenge beyond ancient guilt trips."
". . ."
"Where's that annoying chirping of yours? Dark knockoff this, sadiodork that! Doesn't the climax of our existence deserve some witty humor to break the tension? Come on, why don't you quit staring and fight like a true Jade?" the woman in white demanded.
"No more," the other her whispered. Their eyes met and just for a moment the hand not holding the sword tightened its grip. Then she smiled.
"Exactly, no more everything," she purred eyes fluttering at the thought. The sword rang as the staff struck it.
"What no appeal to my better nature, no playing with guilt? I think I've figured it out, you're the boring Jade!" the evil one shouted. They disengaged, the attacker moving back to stand ready, the defender gave a taunting sword slash.
"No more, I won't make excuses for you. We all had choices you chose wrong every time, its done," the Jade in black intoned, a single tear running from her eye.
"The last tear shed for me, your anguish and sorrow sing. How will your death sound, how will all of our deaths and all of theirs sound? For what I aspire will trump that by mountains," the Jade in white trilled.
"And yet it may also destroy you, not that you even care" the Jade in black replied. "I must make sure that you don't drag everyone else down with you."
The Jade in white lashed out with her sword. The Jade in black leaned back before the sword could strike her in the throat and swung her staff, striking at the sword. Before the blade could hit the staff, Jade swung it down and then up at the staff arm. White Jade laughed as she danced away from the blow.
"Dance dance dance!" she chanted. One danced with a calm grace, green baton spinning its light across the floor. The other pursued with fevered glee each strike and step full of hunger, overflowing with grasping desire.
The staff knocked the blade aside and two fists passed each other. Both dancers recoiled as the blows hit home. A single shake of the head each and the dance resumed.
The Jade in white stepped back tossing her sword in the air. The staff swung out she ascended above it with a leap shrugging off her jacket to catch the sword at the apex of its flight.
The other stepped back as the boot intended for her skull passed to crack the floor. The flat of the light drinking blade struck a forearm as the staff failed to be brought to bear.
Fingers went limp as the limb died, the staff tumbled free only to be caught by the remaining hand. The thrust of green forced the other back and to a halt.
The Jade in black twirled the staff with her remaining hand letting it give way to a humming disk of green. The Jade in white cocked her head like a dog, bright eyes peeking through her mane.
With a feral cry of joy she charged the green, sword stabbing outward. With a dull clang the staff caught the blade, with a crunch the blade bit deep into the stone underfoot. A green coated boot slammed down on the writhing steel, the opening cleared.
The staff erupted forward. It stopped with a thunk, pressing into the palm of a hand.
The moment passed and with a cry of neither joy or rage the sword was pulled free and up.
The figure in black twisted in the air to land with a solid footing, already turning. Into a strike across her wrist. The staff fell with a heavy thud its power dissipating into mist as its bearer propelled herself back with a leap. Arms hanging useless she fell into a stance eyes unwavering.
"Oh really? The champion having entered the field alone against incredible odds; now with out even a hand to raise against her foe, still stands defiant? Its almost enough to touch even me.
"Almost being the key word," the Jade in white laughed.
The charge was a low leap, suicidal. No further control all invested in the kick that was chambered.
It ended in a blur, two strikes melting together with the sound of bones breaking.
She would have fallen to the ground limbless but as swift as her fall, the enemy was faster to scoop her neck under arm.
The sword was tossed casually away so the fist could bear the hold better. The blade pierced the floor sinking a few scant centimeters before its energy was dismissed with a snap of fingers.
For a long moment she just stood there holding possibility under one arm and doom in one hand. Bright eyes closed as if victory was a light to radiant to look into.
"Did you really think you could accomplish something Jade? We both know what we are capable of, so you should know with no chains binding me I was better than you in every way that mattered," the the woman in white commented.
Her arms were bare now without the jacket, monstrous tattoos writhed under her skin crowding to her captive pressing against the surface in eagerness and longing. Still the spiky haired woman only looked straight on.
"What matters is something you have forgotten. Some would say you never knew, but you did. You just were to self-centered to remember preferring to hold on to desires rather than moving on. And you ended up moving on anyway, just badly," the prisoner remarked.
"Now see here! You are hardly in a position for cryptic snark! I have the vast power a lack of inhibition has wielded, the plunder of my own world letting me unleash the disks designs, and the Tablet of Abomination itself in my hand waiting to be invoked.
"What do you have against all of that?" she demanded trailing into mockery holding the tablet in front of her foe where her refection could be seen.
"Old tricks," the defeated answered. Twin rays of heat burst from her eyes, shattering the tablet.
"EEEEEE!" the enemy shrieked dropping her prey she kneeled catching fragments of lead as it fell. Even as they hit her hand they crumbled to dust. In three eye blinks nothing remained but dust carried on the weak wind.
"REAGGGGG!" twisting she kicked out at her foe, sending her flying across the room to strike the statue gouging out its eyes. She did not appreciate the crunch pulling her haphazard locks as she screamed writhing on her feet.
With a howl of despair he hand was flung out the sword ripping free from the floor to smack into her hand. Turning to where her opponent laid boneless but smiling at her sadly her jaw popped as it tightened.
Then the walls were knocked in.
Baring her teeth at the interruption the wild haired Jade whirled to see the eight demon sorcerers walk in glaring at her, wounded but alive.
"It is over," Tso Lan declared pointing with his three remaining arms. Dust filled the as they red eyed demons moved to surround her, she sneered at the sight.
"Seriously, you eight losers couldn't handle me as a group before. Why should you be anymore than misplaced aggression bags now!" Jade demanded.
"Sixteen actually," Tso Lan answered. The dust from their entrance settled revealing eight humans in traditional chinese garb, their eyes aglow like viridian suns.
"Oh fu-!" Jade cried out lifting her sword as immortals and demons struck as one.
A tall strapping man in army fatigues and a golden luchadore mask stumbled in the entrance way hands covering his ears as something screamed in agony. It finally stopped and he continued to kneel until he could hear the sound of his own labored breaths.
Lifting his head he saw the immortals and demons standing in a circle near the altar. Weary, wounded, and anxious his need to see drove him to his feet and to walk across that floor with a labored gait. He passed between Dai Gui and an immortal without challenge.
All that remained was the withered blade broken in two, it no longer looked like a sword and the hilt was frayed on the verge of collapse. Beneath it burned into the stone in black and white, a yin-yang.
"Its over, she's dead?" he asked hesitantly.
"Death could not stop her only delay her with the power she had. She is sealed by the power of Heaven and Hell through us," Lu Dongbin, leader of the Eight answered sheathing his own sword.
"Where . . . ?" the luchadore asked warily.
"Powerless, impotent, where she most dreads being. Inescapable, forever even beyond this universe," Shendu hissed smiling. Despite everything he looked down his eyes darting to where his own Jade laid watching the scene stoically.
"Shed no tears for her, she was the worst possible outcome. This was divine justice handed down by Heaven and endorsed by Hell. Be grateful you will never grasp the enormity of her crimes. The depth of her malign intent that would make demons answer the call of the heavens," Lu Dongbin sighed. He nodded to his comrades, they raised their symbols of power and the demons resentfully but willingly returned from whence hey came as the portals opened. Their seven adversaries dissolved in green light back into the universe without fanfare.
Shendu looked to Jade and walked over to her in two long strides.
"Do not dare evil one," Dongbin spoke up drawing his sword.
"I will go wretch, but I refuse to be in anyones debt. And to be in her debt would be a torment piled upon my torments!" Shendu growled. With surprising gentleness he placed a claw on her brow, and let the horses stalwart strength flow forth.
"you could leave me the ig and call us even," Jade complained as she felt the power slip from her. He answered with a snort of smoke.
Task done she drifted off into sleep. Shendu rose and stepped backward into the portal that had opened behind him. The luchadore watched the portal close up and fade from existence and came to her side to assure himself there was no trick here. He looked to the one legend remaining.
"What now?" he asked. For the first time the Immortal smiled.
"Now you live," he told them. The sword returned to its sheath and the man faded away before his eyes as the weight of the world shifted around them.
BUT IT WAS NOT WHAT WAS. NOW THE EVIL ESCAPES UNCHALLENGED, AND OMEGA RISES TO CONSUME.
Something has altered, something has removed a key element.
Dispatch Corrective Agent, repair corruption of Design, isolate and realign corrupted variable.
A.N.
Not the chapter you were hoping for I know. But at the very least it shows this story is not abandoned.
Next chapter Jade does detention, Gadjo lectures the Titans on the flaws of a ship, stuff blows up, Brother Blood assigns Lab space, and we see Jade working as part of a team.
Till next time, merry Christmas/long days and pleasant nights.