Chase Young felt the change in power.

Chase knew the moment the rough ocean water calm to let Jack and him pass that they were never the target. It was almost comical that his first thought of Wuya betraying whoever she partnered was right. She merely betrayed Hannibal instead of Omi. Something that benefits Chase as well, but the witch didn't try at any point to include Chase into her plan. Wuya simply made sure Chase Young would fight Hannibal until one of them was near death. That rotten bitch used him as a pawn.

A simple plan that the Great warlord was unable to figure out. The man worries for a second of the future implications of a new power imbalance between the Heylin and Xiaolin order. But the dragon demands total concentration on Jack Spicer's condition.

Chase swims closer to the boat. He transforms into his human shape once they are close enough to be found. Chase doesn't wait for the rescue team screaming at them to be calm. He puts Jack over his shoulder and climbs the letter on the side of the boat with his arm. People cluster around them, pointing and crying. Once onboard, Chase explains with his crude Portugues that Jack requires immediate medical help.

The doctors said Jack seems stable but that he must be rush to surgery or he might lose mobility of his arm. They said that even if they do surgery, they cannot guarantee a complete recovery. Jack and Chase were moved to the closest hospital.

The doctors at the hospital said that Jack has lost too much blood, and the operation is too risky. They need permission from a family member to operate. No one believes Chase when he insists that he is family to Jack. A nurse tries to treat Chase's wound, but he glares at her with rage. They said that Chase must prove his relationship with Jack. He gives them Mrs. Spicer's information, and she vouches for Chase as a close family friend.

Jack is rushed to surgery.

Chase waited five hours behind a glass wall observing multiple people work on the left arm.

A shaky medical student stands next to him, treating Chase's wound. The young man is named Oscar, and he has the bad habit of asking Chase if he wants any pain medication every few sips of flesh. Chase Young answered firmly 'no' the first time. He hasn't responded to anything else since then. It has been five hours, and Oscar is long done stitching the wound.

The young man looked at the purple mess tied by clumsy black stitches. Oscar was the only medical staff that would treat Chase standing in front of the surgery room. He wasn't precisely qualifying, but everyone else was too scared. Chase Young wasn't from around. He looks different and so pretty. The man was covered in dirt, muck, and blood, but he still looks breathtaking, like mermaids from fishermen's tales. The man's voice was smooth and pleasing, full of confidence and power. He stood in front of the glass following every little movement, like his own arm wasn't missing and in dire need for professional medical attention. Yet, no one would touch him because his blood runs cold.

Oscar was blessed by a Santera, and he has a necklace with five different saints, so he wasn't too scared. He felt he should help in some way. After all, that is why he wants to be a doctor.

"That's Dr. Castillo. I shadowed him. His last patient is looking at a two-year recovery." Oscar said, but his words didn't seem to affect the strange man. "He is outstanding. People travel just for a consult with him."

The young man looks into the surgical room and felt his heart raised. The complicated transplant of healthy neural tissue to damage areas was fascinating to Oscar. But the young man on the table had to skip many steps to assure the success of the operation.

"He is in good hands."

Nothing.

"What is his name?" The young man on the table had ghostly white skin and arterial red blood hair and eyes, but his blood was warm, or so Oscar heard.

"Jack"

"Jack's life is not endangered anymore. They are just trying to save the mobility of his arm, but he can live with one arm and a half-"

"Are you done?" The strange man asks, but it wasn't a question. It was an instruction to leave him alone.

Chase stayed in place until the doctors inside sutured each cut closed and bandaged most of Jack's upper body with pink-ish cloths. Eventually, they move Jack to his new room.

A doctor told Chase that the surgery went well, but they couldn't know the state of his arm until he wakes up. But they were hopeful.

Jack sleeps through the afternoon, and Chase waited for him.

A young, naive medical student tried to comfort Chase. She accidentally confirmed Chase's suspicion that Jack was stable enough to move.

The odd couple disappeared from that hospital that night.

Jack wakes up in his laboratory, the medical wing, to be exact.

Chase Young calmly waits for Jack to come to his senses as the heavy opiums slowly fade.

The genius noticed that thin metal rods lifts his arms and kept them immobilized. He turns to his side and sees Chase Young.

"Chase." Jack's throat felt funny.

"Yes, Jack."

" Chase?" He tries again.

"Yes."

"What do you know" Jack turns to look at the twin casts on his arms. "What happened to my arms?"

"One is broken, and the other one dislocated -not in bad shape, really. You just had surgery, so the slings are for support." Chase fills him in, and Jack absently nods.

"Right, I remember. I got shot." Jack said like it was apparent. The drug induce dazed was heavy, but his brain still remembers priorities. "Where are we?"

"Your laboratory, medical wing."

"Because I'm hurt," Jack remembers the fight, the dull pain, and panic.

"Yes."

"Did we getaway? We got way. Why are we here?" Jack felt a little headache, and he tries to massage his head, but his arms are attached to those metal hammocks.

"Yes. It's safe here."

Jack groans in pain, the reality was breaking through his dizzy brain and details being appearing on his memory.

"You carry me out." Jack smiles for a second, he remembers being sure he would die, but he didn't.

"It's a partnership, Jack. Stop being so surprised," Chase felt a little tired, but he didn't want to leave Jack alone yet. He wonders if he could rest on Jack's bed. There was plenty of space.

Jack relaxes his neck as he tries to piece details in the right order. They first got to the Island. Chase began a fire, and Jack looks for the control and Wuya; Jack found nothing. Omi was there. Jack opens his eyes.

Omi attacked him. Jack's heartbeat rises correspondingly to the soft beats of the heart monitor.

Chase stands from his place and walks towards Jack.

Jack's wounds opened, and he started bleeding. He begged Omi to stop.

"Jack." Chase lightly pokes the left cheek, and Jack pouts. There was a bruise there.

Jack didn't answer. He looks at Chase and notices that he was being poked oddly.

"Where is your arm?" Jack blinks.

"In the ocean." Chase answers.

"Your arm?!"

"In the ocean." Chase answers and continues to carefully poke the purple and red bruises.

"What? What you mean? Did you- Oh, wow. Okay. It's cool. You seem cool. Are you cool? Cause you seem calm about this, but it could be the drugs."

"Yes. I'm. Very. Okay." Chase Young was currently ignoring the loss of his arm.

"Really. Because. Um? You loved that arm. And -Should we go for it? Maybe the doctors can - Hey. Do I?" Jack looks closely at the medical equipment that holds his arms up. "Okay. They are there. They can paste it back. I saw it on T.V."

"Is not the first time it happens, Jack. It will grow back."

Jack stares at him in disbelief.

"Oh, that's. That's good. Thanks for letting me know. Because, of course, it grows back. Youareagaintlizardafterall."

Jack tries to stay quiet, "A fucking lizard," but he ends up asking more questions about previously lost limbs. He discovered it takes quite a while for Chase Young to regenerate an appendage; months for a finger and years for an arm. The first time it happened, Chase destroyed everything on his path and prepared to adjust his fighting and living style, but after twenty years, his arm grew back overnight.

Jack wasn't a fan of cellular regeneration, but he was curious. They talk about it for hours at a lazy blurry pace with significant pauses between sentences as Jack alternated between heavily medicated and partial consciousness.

After the third day, Jack received a lower dose of morphine and his first real meal.

Chase told Jack over lunch, potatoes and fish, that Hannibal was dead. And that Omi killed him.

It took more than a minute for the genius to process the information.

"Oh."

"Yes." Chase pushed Jack's legs away so he could sit in front of him to have a conversation. He has taken several showers and ordered a robot to tie his hair up.

"It was Wuya." Jack hisses, feeling relief and furious. "The bitch used us! We weren't the target. We weren't even the -she." Jack deflated his rant as fast as he started.

"Most likely, we were." Chase says and plays with a fork and the bland mash potatoes from Jack's plate.'

"Um? But then?" Jack felt angry and sick.

"She saw an opening." Chase drops the fork he was playing with.

"The rat?"

"No." Chase takes a moment to figure out how to say what happened. "She knew I was momentarily disrupted by your fake death. She prepares to attack, but to what end."

"You would defeat her easily if she were to fight you head-on." Jack agreed. After all, he knew well Wuya's deceiving nature. "She has to partner up with someone more powerful than her," Hannibal, Jack thought. "Or at least useful." Omi.

"I thought the same thing. We were wrong."

Jack sits a little straighter and tries to see what he missed.

"As of right now, Omi is much more powerful than I expected him to become."

Jack blinked twice at that statement.

"Like Master Dashi?" It was weird that he felt pride. After so long, Omi accomplished his goal.

"No. They are too different." Chase concludes, and Jack hurries to re-think everything with the new information.

"Omi picked who to target." Jack finally understood why they never saw through Wuya's plan. They assumed that Omi wasn't collaborating, but he had a significant part in the scheme.

"However, Omi now has a debt to Wuya."

"And Wuya always betrays her partner at the end."

There was no need to say more about the matter.

Once the week ended, Jack was allowed to walk outside. Chase forced him to complete his physical therapy every day. Now Jack was 'discharged' early.

The Heylin men stroll in calm silence. Jack concentrates on keeping his balance, and Chase stays on his right side to support him with his left arm.

"It works out, eh?"

"Too soon, Spicer."

"Call me Jack," a hiccup on their step.

Every so often, Jack would stop to catch his breath, and Chase would mention some odd detail of an old memory.

Everything was relatively calm.

The monks stayed in their temple.

Wuya was hiding from everyone.

Hannibal was dead.

"This is odd." Jack felt slightly breathless and decides to walk towards a bench near them.

Chase Young hums in agreement.

"Are we sure he is dead."

"Yes. Hannibal has ceased to exist for now."

"Now?" Jack stops and glares at Chase. "What you mean now?"

"He embodied an old cursed land," Chase explained. "He won't come back, but someone will take his place."

"Okay, but for him. He is dead."

"Yes."

Jack lets out an exaggerated sigh and positions himself to sit down.

"Who you think would take his place?" Jack asks lightheartedly.

"It is too early to say. We must wait a few hundreds of years." Chase sits next to him.

"Nice! I'll be dead. For reals this time." It was odd to keep his arms pinned against him by the blue slings, but he ignores it and tries to relax.

Chase Young was quiet in a different way now. The previous calm between them was replaced by an undeniable tension.

Both try to ignore the pressure that gradually falls over them. There is still a conversation they don't want to have.

Jack looks down at his bandaged and casts arms, and Chase stares at the dark bruises over Jack's face and neck.

They hear a mechanical hum approaching them, followed by the 'clicks' of heels.

"Mom?" Jack straightens his posture and looks at Chase in a silent question.

"I wouldn't call her even if you ask me to."

"Yeah," Jack licks his lips, nervously, "That's true." He hates it when his mom sees him hurt. He is also emotionally exhausted and can't deal with her. "Should we, mm?"

"Do you want me to go?"

"No. I just, I don't want to see her right now."

"Then tell her to go."

"No." The 'clicks' became louder, and Jack knew that escape wasn't an option anymore.

Jack didn't want to be a bad son. But he was tired and didn't want to think about everything that happened.

"JACK?!" A high pitch voice calls, and Jack struggles to stand up. Chase stares at him like a cat.

"Jack?" he repeats.

"Baby! Is that YOU?" OH!" The 'clicks' become faster.

"Baby, is that you?" Chase mocks her from the bench.

"Stop that!" Jack hisses, but the man was gone.

Now he is alone with his mother.

"Jackie!" Elisabeth Spicer runs to meet her son. Then her smile drops for only a second at seeing the bruises and blue arm slings, but she quickly pretends they are not there like she did most of Jack's teenage years. "Baby, I was so worried."

"Yeah. Sorry about that, mom. Mm? So how are you doing? After the, uh, hostage incident?" Jack wasn't sure if he should ask, but he wasn't sure how to brush that under the table.

"Oh, you know me! I just bounce right up!"

"Right." Jack blinked a few times and wondered if she was going to comment on his injuries.

"I think the worst part about it was that we didn't even get to shop!" She giggles, and Jack giggles with her. Mrs. Spicer's laugh was contagious.

"I was really in the mood for a new coat." Jack continues, and his mother lets her jaw hand open for a second before covering it with her hand.

She smiles playfully and tilts forwards.

"I literally put a coat on hold for you!" She was not going to address Jack's injuries or his long absence or all the missing calls or the strange man that appears and disappears in thin air.

"Really?" Jack tilts his head, a habit he picked up from her.

"Yes! Wow. And I have it with me! Is in the car." She turns quickly on, and just as quickly, she turns to face Jack. "Let's go get it. You are going to love it!" She wants to say something meaningful or ask for an explanation, but she doesn't dare to try.

"Yes," Jack orders a jack-bot to carry him. "I can't believe you went shopping without me!"

"Well, you know me." Mrs. Spicer jokes and continues walking with an unwavering smile on her face.

Jack told Chase that he had a ghost and a vampire for parents.

Mrs. Spicer is the ghost; half gone and half there. Jack wasn't sure if his mother couldn't deal with everything he did or just didn't want to. Either way, she selects what to see or comment with impressive ease.

In the last ten to eight years, she had been more gone than there.

Jack told himself that it was okay since he is an adult now. He didn't blame her as much anymore.

They reach the white limousine parked in front of the main entrance.

"I call some of your friends to help you carry your presents, Jackie." She instructs. Jack nods and calls for more Jack-bots to the front entrance. "I felt bad that you didn't get to go shopping, so I got you everything!"

Mrs. Spicer opens the car door, and as promised, the inside was full of numerous shopping bags from different stores.

"Damn! Did you got me the Eiffel tower too?"

"Baby, it doesn't go with the decor." She laughs and jumps inside the car. Jack carefully follows her inside while the Jack-bots hover outside.

"Where is your friend?" Mrs. Spicer asks while she looks through colorful shopping bags.

"Chase Young is not my friend, mom. He is more of my evil mentor/partner."

"Yes." Elisabeth stiffens at the mention of his name. "I meant the nice one."

"Omi?" Jack guesses, but he really only has those two 'friends.' "Um? We. I think we fought." Jack doesn't say anything else, and he knows his mother won't ask either.

"Oh. Well, look at what I got you." She pulls a long dark brownish-red fur coat.

"Pretty." Jack notices that his mother's fingers are trembling. "Mom, are you okay?" Maybe he should consider her health.

"Yes, baby. It is just heavy!" She grunts and lets go of the coat, which makes a sound against the metal floor of the car.

"What animal is that?" Jack tries to help his mother, but both of his arms are injured.

"Is synthetic baby." Mrs. Spicer rubs her hands together.

"Synthetic? Since when you buy fake fur?" Jack kicks the coat to confirm that it is indeed heavier than any coat he owns. "Did a new trendy designer decided because, mom, it won't last."

"No, no, no." Mrs. Spicer steadied herself for a second. She felt the weight of fear that has kept paralyzed her in time for so long fade. "It's bulletproof."

The simplicity of the truth was lost to Jack.

Jack didn't know much about his mother. She grew in a strict religious household, she has three siblings she hasn't seen in thirty years, and she felt like everything was too much to handle.

Mrs. Spicer awkwardly waits for a response while her son stares at the coat. The young man didn't fight the tears and faces his mother.

"Jackie?" She asks softly.

"I really love it." He answers, and he feels the air between them become lighter. It was too little too late, but Jack wants so badly that he receives the gesture with an unprotected heart.

It was odd to assume that his mother was asking permission to be part of his life, after years of neglect.

After years of absence, she wants to protect him.

"Then, you are going to love the rest."

They spend the rest of the afternoon looking at Jack's new wardrobe and lightly talking about the time lost.

Jack told her that his injuries look a lot worse than they actually were.

Elisabeth told him that she had broken her ankle five times and didn't tell anyone but her doctor.

Jack admitted to her that he started driving long before he was supposed to and that he was the one that crashed his uncle's red convertible, not his cousin. He told her that he purposely framed his cousin.

Elisabeth admitted to him that she took night classes for eight years, and now she was a lawyer. She did it to defend herself in case she has to divorce her husband.

Jack was looking at a purse that was also a reusable light grenade.

Mrs. Spicer confessed that she didn't trust anyone. Not a single person on this Earth, she would trust with even the most insignificant of things. She never questioned her reasoning, it made sense to her. But then they were attacked.

"When you saved me. I wondered why. I never gave you a good reason to trust me." Jack listened carefully. "I want you to trust me, and I want to trust you."

Jack Spicer wasn't ready to hear those words, but he nodded.

"It will take time." He told her.

They talk some more until their throats were sore, then they say goodbye.

Jack slept alone in his whole bed, something he hasn't done in months.

The next morning was slow and hazy, like a dream that feels too much like reality. It had already been a week since that fight. It was odd to think that he will go down in history. That is a thousand years someone would tell the story of when Omi, the water monk, killed Hannibal, and Jack Spicer fought next to Chase Young until the very end.

The day passed in a blink.

He slept through the whole night, and the next morning Jack felt like it was a new year. So he picked the phone and calls his mom.

Each ring made Jack wonder if he was doing the right thing or if he was being oddly desperate for attention.

The other side picks up.

"Jackie?" His mom answers and a second voice asks a hushed question. This was a mistake.

"Wanna move together?" Jack asks before he loses his nerve. A shocked silence awaits on the other line.

"I miss you." Jack explains, "I've been missing you for years now, and I don't want to feel like I shouldn't miss you because I barely know you."

"Baby," movement and the sound of a door scared Jack into reality. "Jackie, I understand. I miss you too. And this so sudden."

I could die any day. That wasn't the right thing to say.

"You are right. I'm sorry-"

"No, Jackie, I want to. You can come with me ore I can go to you. But I think moving is too fast. Let's visit for a month or two, and then decided."

I could die any day. It was at the point that Jack noticed how scared he felt.

"Please."

"When baby? When? And Where?"

"Tomorrow, your house. Is that okay?"