Too Death To Play
Chapter 4
Warning: There is a little of gore in this chapter. Also, a little sad.
"GO!" jack sends his jack-spies to the place where the Shen gong wu is, a few miles before him. Pre-programmed past experiences had taught jack that he should let his robots scout the perimeter for danger and information before he reaches the place.
The little habit has saved him more than once.
The genius had tried to keep his new robots a secret since most people would tease him about it because 'it should have been obvious, and it is hard to believe that it took you so long to come with the most basics of strategies.' That was what Chase had said.
jack pouts at the memory; it wasn't his memory, but it felt so real. He can remember the surprise of a tiger lightly pushing his side on a weak intent to cheer him up. Noah was such sweetheart.
However, jack did congratulate himself when he found a new use for his robots, though now their job description is in their name, it came as a surprise at first. The robots cannot only pick up signals of danger from locations, but also irregularities from people.
Like at this very moment the jack-spies were sending in their reports, besides the reasonable warnings of the quicksands, highly poisonous frogs, and predators, the robots had picked up an irregularity of the monks standing position: Kimiko and Raimundo were standing further away from each other than usual; 0.67 meters to be exact. Which, for the robots could mean that a problem had occurred that could affect their ability to attack or defend efficiently.
But as great as jack's creations might be, the genius still prefer his eyes. The redhead looks at Wuya who stands tall with her cocky smile. She looks much stronger than the last time he saw her...the memory is blurry but jack knows he was pretty sleep deprived at the time. But all of his most recent memories seem to be blurry. The young man smiles at the older woman, and he looks at his biotech armor that Wuya wears and whistles.
The woman looks at jack quickly, but she turns away without saying nothing. She didn't pose or try to get any more form of flattery or happily show her quick wit to the albino, and she looks the other way.
The robots didn't find it strange, but jack saw her face. He saw the last specks of guilt Wuya possess exposed for only a moment, and that's how jack knew that Wuya would betray him today.
"Where is it?!" Raimundo screams, his voice reminds jack of where he is and what he came to do.
"Around here! Could you calm down? We just got here!" Jogo says as he draws on the dirt a circle, and tries to concentrate.
"Why so very fast Raimundo? Don't you want to see your land of mothers?" Omi asks as innocently as the pubertal could fake.
"How are you getting worst at speaking? How is that even possible?" Raimundo asks already annoy and ready to go home.
"Leave him alone!" Kimiko interferes, and the whole group goes silent.
The tension is massive and fresh, and it makes jack smile. The monks are at their weakest when they are fighting each other. The albino giggles at their misfortune like it were meant to be his entertainment. With a bright grin, the albino turns to looks for Wuya, sure that with a small partnership he could win over the monks. But Wuya isn't longer an option.
jack curses under his breath at the timing in which the witch had decided to go solo. The genius tries to calculate his chances of actually winning the showdown before Dojo or Wuja find the Wu when Chase Young appears from thin air.
The presence of the warlord always makes everyone wary. But what brothers jack was the four large felines that growl behind his master. Chase only brings his warriors with him for two reasons; when he is bored, and he wants to bother people with his witty, mean comments (and of course he needs an audience), or when he wants to be sure he won't lose.
And since Chase hasn't insulted anyone in the last ten seconds, jack guesses is the second one.
The young man wonders if Chase Young would allow him to partner up, jack knows the answer is 'neverwithout warning' but he can still dream.
A jack-spy reports a code 'chili,' which means Hannibal Roy Bean is nearby.
The albino moves with new purpose and value, as he hurries to share the information with Chase Young before any of the Warlord's minions can.
No one pays attention to jack running from his place to Chase Young.
The warlord himself didn't think it was anything of importance, and when jack pulls on his arm and whisper on his ear Chase was merely surprised that he didn't hear the little-worn asking 'team up.'
"The old evil is lurking~" jack whispers with a grin on his face. Chase raises an eyebrow that questions the information, but jack's grin doesn't change.
"I had visible jack-spies, invisible ones, and mosquito cameras everywhere! I get reports of anything and everything that happens on a ten miles radius! By now I had better and more complete maps than Google could ever dream!" jack explains happily, and he knows he said something right when Chase doesn't send him away.
"What about any flora or fauna? Do you have every creature accounted for?" Chase asks, and after a moment of doubt, the young man shrugs his shoulders.
"I could if I wanted to." jack answers to the weird command, and Chase looks at Dojo and Wuya but neither seem to be able to locate the Wu.
The warlord considers his next move, as he doesn't want anyone but himself to take possession of the Wu. And with a heavy sigh, the millennium-old man says one word.
"Fine." Chase redundantly agrees to the unspoken question, and jack smiles like the fool he is. The genius considered asking Chase to partner up, but he thought the answer would be ...not 'yes.' However, jack's mind is like always ready to ruin his fun as his brain asks 'why?'
But before jack could make his questions vocal he came to the answer.
"The Wu is fucking moving!" The genius says surprise and suddenly looking everywhere like the Wu could pop up in front of him at any minute. It is not only moving, but it must not hold a specific shape as either Wuya or Dojo had tried to describe it, and more importantly, it can't be traced as not even Chase Young or Hannibal Roy Bean had been able to find it.
Therefore Chase needs a map, and everything and everyone accounted for.
"This is going to be a cool one!" jack smiles and looks at Chase but the man doesn't seem to agree or disagree.
"We should make this special, not that it isn't already special being able to work with you -it is truly a dream come true. No, it is a life goal to be able to work with you, even on a temporary basis. But I want it to be more special to the both of us, so we should get like a team name. What you think?" jack asks as he sends the new command of searching for all life form to his robots.
"I think your existence is an error of mother nature and the humankind, but agreeing to work with you was my error. And I hate to err." Chase answers and he sees jack smile shrink for a moment, but the young man simply lets the commentary go over his head.
"Yeah...maybe a name might be a bit too much." jack smiles and his watch lights up. Chase doesn't understand the numbers on the small screen, but he can clearly read jack's expression.
"What is wrong?" Chase asks.
"NOTHING!" jack lies. Before Chase could further question the albino, a raven lands on his shoulder to tell him what jack already did ten minutes ago.
"If there something that I hate more than your incompetence, is you trying to lie!" Chase says as he sends his minion away. jack visibly trembles, and then he nods.
Chase can't help to smile at that, and he does love when jack spicer shows that he does have a backbone.
"There are too much life forms to had them all accounted for in such short notice and without enough robots available..." jack reports.
"Then call reinforcements immediately, and I'll make sure you had enough time." Chase states like it were the most simple thing. jack looks at the man for a moment, like he thinks Chase is going to remember to insult him in any minute, but he doesn't so jack hurries with his machines.
"It would take 30 minutes for them to get here, and from 1 hour to 2 for the analysis of all life form to be completed." jack says after calling for help to his lab and making some calculations.
Chase nods and jack waits for more commands or to be sent away, but neither happens.
It takes only fifteen minutes for the monks to collectively give up on waiting for Dojo to explain himself, and start asking Wuya and Chase for answers.
It takes the monks five minutes to understand that neither of the Heylin would answer their questions. This brings discomfort to their faces as they are used to a more talkative Wuya and even Chase.
jack grew bored of waiting twenty minutes ago, but he busied himself with calculations and the games on his phone.
The albino was getting more comfortable by using a tiger, fluffy Noah, as a chair when the screen on his wristwatch started beeping. He reads the information and hums to himself.
"What it says, Spicer?" Chase asks, and jack answers like the answer meant nothing.
"I sent the jack-spies to observe the ecosystem and count all living being that is part of it. But they only found one Noron- Noronhomys, a fancy name for a rat! And they are not able to find more than one." jack tells Chase, but the man doesn't react to jack's words but at Wuya's movements.
"Where?" Chase asks as he signals something to the tiger jack is sitting on.
"2.3 miles east from here." jack answers and without a warning the tiger he had been sitting on starts running.
"Noah you dump!" jack cries as he struggles to hold his balance, he doesn't even feel bad when he pulls the tiger's fur for leverage.
The monks notice the Heylin moving, and they follow by foot, Raimundo gets ahead using his power over the wind, and ignores Clay's plead to 'stick together.'
The tiger who carries jack runs without hearing the young man's cries to stop. Wuya is the first one to find the rat, and she pounds on the ground for it like a cat. The rat squeaks, most likely very confused, as it tries to get away.
"Why are we chasing a rat?!" Kimiko asks as she sends a fireball in the rodent's direction.
"STOP THAT!" Dojo screams and hurries to put off the fire.
"Why?" Kimiko asks as she tries to think of another way to get the rat.
"We need to get it alive. It very, very, very important that we capture the rat alive!" Dojo explains as he tries to capture the rodent.
"That really goes against my upbringing," Clay says, but he still tries to capture the little creature by building an earth fence around it. But the rat jumps over it with ease.
"What an embarrassment to the past Xiaolin monks; their descenders can't even catch a rat," Chase says as he looks the whole situation unfold at his feet, he turns to look at jack long-term has a huge grin on his face. The eyes of the youth follow only Chase as he waits to see his idol make his move.
With his small audience, Chase feels a little cockier, and he smiles before teleporting on the center of everything.
Everyone jumps back and observe the warlord, but their attention is quick rob by the large rodent trapped on Chase's gloved hand.
"You are supposed to be dead," Chase tells the rat before squeezing.
"PLEASE DON'T" Wuya implores as she shamelessly falls to her knees.
"Oh, you are going to beg," Chase says, amusement mix in his tone, he searches for jack who looks torn between who to root for, but the young uncharacteristically chooses to be quiet. Maybe a sign of maturity.
jack looks at the ground, and he tries to block the sound of Wuya crying, it shouldn't matter to him -she wouldn't help him if the situations were reversed; she would betray him as well. She was already planning to betray him. She betrayed him first, and he owes her nothing.
"You don't need it. But I DO!" Wuya cries, and for a moment her ugly cries are enough to distract Chase.
A bird flies in the scene aiming for Chase's head, the warlord dodges easily, and he doesn't even blink when Hannibal Roy Bean jumps from the bird and attacks Chase. The man laughs at the attacks of his old master, and when he feels another attacker from behind, he jumps out of the way to had Wuya's attack collide against Hannibal.
"Too late!" Chase says as everything plays as he anticipated. Neither Wuya or Bean are strong enough to fight him, and they had failed at their ambush. The monks are too stunned to do anything on time and Dojo would prefer for Chase to keep the Wu than anyone else. And jack, he comes closer to Chase, as a moth flies to light, to see his idol destroy his enemies last hopes.
But Chase was distracted and he misses a crucial detail; the rat. The animal fights for its freedom and bites the hand that holds him. The teeth didn't even nick Chase skin, but he opens his hand out of reflex, and the rat jumps out.
The Xiaolin monks compose themselves and understand that it doesn't matter what the rat means, but if the three big evils want to kill it then they must save it. Wuya and Hannibal busy themselves attacking Chase, while Bean's bird and jack's robots follow the rat.
"What?" jack says as he sees his robots move without him giving them an order. A quick check on their system lets the genius know that there is a second control and he knows who is it without having to think about; Wuya. She stole a control for his jack-spies.
Chase hisses at the deafening vibration of Wuya's sonar gun, a product of Spicer's creativity, the warlord makes a mental note of forbidden jack from making weapons like that one. Hannibal takes full advantage of Chase's temporal sensorial lost, and he attacks as often and as dirty as he is able to. The monks throw every long-distance attack they can think of.
jack takes a big breath as he decides that he can't overtake the other control from where he is, since both are master controls, he needs to find the other control manually. Against his survival instinct, he leaves the tiger, who joins the battle as soon as jack is no longer on the way, and he sneaks inside the battlefield.
Chase growls and transforms into his dragon shape, he calls his warriors, but he allows the one that is looking for jack to stay in place. It's much easier to shred flesh with claws, and he enjoys the cries from Hannibal as he forces the old rotten Bean to back off.
Even as the worst fighter on the Heylin side, jack is very proud of his ability to slide from a place to place mostly unnoticed. Chase did mention that was because no one cared to notice jack, but jack was still proud of his sneaking around skills.
Wuya felt jack jump over her before the albino had even performed the act, her first instinct was to attack, and she turns with her sonar gun and points at jack. The young man sees the gun up, and he captures her wrist and points the gun down, and he pushes Wuya to the ground all on less than a second. He smiles as he sees his training finally pay off and save his own life for once. jack doesn't notice that Wuya never pulled the trigger because he is bleeding.
It all happened too fast.
Chase had just tilt his fight with Hannibal in his favor, Omi had been able to hit him on the right side of his face with a block of ice, and Chase irritated had decided to end their fight. He chooses to get rid of Wuya first; he attacked her with intent to kill except that Wuya was on the ground and jack was looking at the claws buried deep in his stomach.
jack's body tense at the moment of the strike, but all the resistance his muscles put meant nothing as the sharp claws go through him like he wasn't there. The three lower claws tear his stomach open and all the acid spills over his organs, and they begin to slowly dissolve. His sternum was shattered by the dragon's claws and his diaphragm torn useless, with the diaphragm unable to help the lungs to contract jack is unable to breathe. He looks at the claw resting inside of him, nestled in his heart, and his tears fall like they have done countless times before. jack slowly looks up. His lips are blue when he had mustered the strength to look up, and he looks at Chase on his dragon shape standing very still.
The monks stop their attack and they run to help -to do something, Omi is the first one to apply pressure to the wound, his little hands tremble at the sight of all that red. "It smells worst than it looks," Omi whisper to jack but the albino doesn't look down. He only looks at Chase.
Kimiko is on the phone screaming at the person on the other line to tell her what to do.
Wuya is only screaming as she tries to desperately clean the blood that had fallen on her.
Chase looks at jack, his lips are blue, his eyes are losing their light, and his legs do not longer sustain him.
Clay holds jack. First, he helps him stand but in less than a second Clay was the only thing keeping jack up.
Raimundo tries to keep jack awake, responsive, and he asks him questions, the monk jokes and when jack doesn't response Raimundo raises his voice and ignores his tears.
jack is not sure what is happening around him, only that everything is foggy and that Chase is looking at him like they would never see each other again. It was then when it hit him. jack won't see Chase again, it was over, so he stays with his eyes open regardless of the pain and dizziness. That man, Chase Young would be the last thing he sees.
Three minutes had passed, and jack's brain has suffered irreparable damage. Jack's mind is officially passed any salvation. "We had to put him down, and give him CPR until and try to stop the bleeding, and wait for help. If it didn't hit his stomach, he has a chance!" Kimiko informs everyone, and people move to help. Raimundo says he knows CPR, and Omi whispers jack that "everything would be fine."
"He is gone," Chase says.
jack's eyes are perfect crystals, and the warlord can see himself reflected on them, tears do not longer fall.
"He can come back! I had seen people come back from worst, and jack won't let death take him so easily. I'll do the compressions." Clay says as he tries to lower jack to the ground.
"I hit his stomach. He is no longer bleeding internally because his blood has stopped circulating, he knew he was dead the moment …" Chase doesn't finish that sentence. He doesn't say anything else.
The atmosphere quickly changes from denial to anger.
"YOU ATTACK HIM!" Omi was the first one to scream as he tries to pull the body away from Chase. The monk is successful but when the body is pulled away from the claws a new wave of blood rushes out of the hole left under the young man's ribs.
The monks help Omi while insulting Chase like they had forgotten the strength of the man, or maybe like at the moment they are far more angry that they had ever been scared.
Wuya says nothing and does nothing. She only stares at the blood puddle.
"I'm so sorry," Clay says to the body before he reaches to close jack's eyes.
"Don't" Chase finally speaks. There is silence, he himself can't believe he isn't allowing for the monks to the respectful thing and close the eyes of the death. But jack dies looking at him, no one else.
jack live looking at Chase.
"I'll take him." Chase states and he ignores the complaints of the monks. He teleports himself and the corpse away, leaving the monks to grieve.
The palace was silence when Chase appears carrying the former jack spicer on his arms. The little blood trail they left as Chase walks to a room where he can lay the body respectively was followed by the household servants.
Chase picks one of the guest rooms and lays the body on the bed. He looks like the expensive bed covers as they become tainted with the dark red that still drips from the wound.
"Spicer," Chase calls even though he knows the boy didn't have enough magic on him to hold to the realm of the living. Chase moves the head so the eyes would look at him. The warlord searches for the glee, love, and adoration that always shine in jack's eyes, but those eyes are now dead.
"jack," Chase calls hoping that maybe the young man had enough regret on him to tied his spirit to the world of the living. But no one answers.
Chase looks at his right hand which is covered in dried blood.
"Please," Chase whispers unsure of what would it accomplish.
No one answers.
Chase stays in silence, letting those lifeless eyes observe him while he thinks how could he apologize for had broken his promise to jack. The only promised he made to jack spicer.
jack's blood grows cold on the Fernando de Noronha island.
The monks let themselves cry, and Kimiko tries to talk to Wuya before leaving the island, but the witch quietly asks them to leave her alone.
For once her voice is soft and exposed.
For once the monks do as they are told.
Wuya looks at the blood and repeats to herself that it's jack's.
The woman looks around and when she can't see anyone she lets herself cry.
jack wasn't like her son, he behaved like a child, and she had to play the role of the adult, but they weren't mother and son. jack was her ally, never her first option but always an option, but that was a part of their relationship she could survive without.
jack was her friend.
She would go to jack when she was at her weakest, and she would go to him when she was at her strongest. They would fight, but jack always allowed her back. Even when she knew that jack couldn't help her, Wuya would search for him, because the boy would always listen. Because the lonely boy didn't have anyone to guide him and Wuya didn't have anyone else to trust her. They were each other's last option, but they always chose each other first.
Wuya lets silent tears fall down her face as she chokes her sobs before they leave her throat. The witch lowers her head to the puddling blood, and she imagines that she is next to spicer's body. That the idiot genius can still hear her, so she can say everything she didn't say to him in life.
"Thank you." The witch whispers.
Wuya lifts her head and cleans her face. She readies to stands up; there is a rat she must catch.
"That was touching." A voice mocks her from a tree.
Hannibal smiles showcasing his yellow rotten teeth.
"I didn't know you care~," The bean says as he jumps on the back of its minion.
"Where were you?" Wuya asks and she tries to ignore her raspy voice, tired from all the screaming.
"Enjoying the spectacular. I never knew that Chase had grown so close to that kid. Well, he did grow up to be quite a sight for sore eyes~" Hannibal says with a little chuckle.
"It hasn't been a day!" Wuya says disgustedly.
"It hasn't been three hours yet, his guts might still be warm if you search by his colon, and you are ready to move on." Hannibal points out.
"What you want?" Wuya asks even though she knows the answer.
"The same thing that you want; revenge," Hannibal says, but Wuya doesn't seem as pleased as he expects her to be. Instead, she walks off like Hannibal wasn't talking to her.
"Oh, and I thought you like jackie?" Hannibal plays.
"He was a baby!" Wuya answers as she fights new tears from spilling over her face.
The monster uses his vines until he is in front of Wuya.
"You still want your power back, don't you?" Hannibal asks incredulously of the witch new tactic of simply walking away from deals.
"Yes. But last time I partner up with you we got our ass kicked, and gained nothing, I would even say I lost good weapons -may be more valuable than your partnership at this point. And jack spicer die!" Wuya stops at her words, but she picks up the pace, not ready to think about it now. She said her goodbyes; she can move on.
Except she was planning to betray jack, he would never know, but that's the fact.
"Chase is started. I can tell his little fanboy death shocked him. Now is the time!" Hannibal says. Wuya considers fighting the bean but she doesn't want to get hurt, not now.
This is not the moment to make big decisions.
Before she could say whatever she was planning on saying the control, she stole from jack starts beating.
"That's my ride." The witch lies, and she looks at the screen to see what actually is. Wuya can barely keep her face calm when she sees she received a message from jack spicer. She hurries and calls one of the robots nearby to come and pick her up.
"Leaving so soon. Don't you had a rat to catch?" Hannibal asks.
Wuya jumps on the jack-bot that has come for her and her simple acts bore of the whole thing.
"Do you know where that stupid rat is?" She doesn't wait for an answer as the robot takes her away.
The woman waits until they are far enough and she is sure that she isn't being followed to open the message.
The little screen lights up, and jack appears. jack appears alive and okay, his eyes shine, his lips move, and there isn't a large hole in his stomach.
"Hi! It took you over twenty minutes to open my testament. So, fuck you! That's just rude. At least that you were like...crying in which case; I'm sorry...I guess."
The jack on the screen says, Wuya covers her mouth as she sees the screen change frames, jack looks the same he does. Correction. Jack looks the same as he did.
It was recent.
"Wuya. This is a message for you!" The woman nods.
"It should have been around three hours since I die. How cool is this? Wait let me do it again. If you had received this message, it means that I had been dead for over three hours. I'm sorry." jack smiles brightly after imitating something he watches a movie.
"I'm not sure how long do you need ...or if you need time at all. I know you are not celebrating. If you are, then you are the worst. But I think you would cry. We didn't always get along, mostly 'cause you are a bitch, but ...we were friends Wuya. We were friends. So, I'm sorry for dying. I never meant to leave you alone so soon. I hope at least it was cool." Wuya smiles and she feels for a moment on ease. He knew that she cared, that she cares.
"You are gonna need a good ally once I'm gone. Now that I'm gone. And You are gonna need a friend. So I gonna give you mine. Every jack-bot is from now on a Wuya-bot. Which it doesn't sound as cool, and you won't like them as much but is everything I got. There are two robot mechanics that can fix the broken stuff. And that's all." The jack on the screen says, and he awkwardly waits until the screen turns off.
The witch stares at the screen a little longer, waiting for jack to say something, and just before she is ready to give up a second message arrives.
"Just one more thing!" jack says with a smile.
"I can't give you all my good stuff for free. I need a favor." The jack in the screen smiles.