Chapter 27: Amplifiers and the Cold Hard Truth
One of the things that bothered me about the Vlad episode is how he used the Reversing Mirror against the Crystal Glasses. If he used it at the same time the Glasses were activated, wouldn't that cause the user to see into the past? It seems like something the producers conveniently forgot about.
Anyway, on with the chapter!
Inside the Shen Gong Wu vault
"Hey, how come you get to try the Crystal Glasses first?" Clay demanded to know. Omi held up the artifact.
"Because I suffered a Tebigong'ing to retrieve them," he said smartly. Valerie took it out of his hands.
"Only because you let Jack go Reversing Mirror on your sorry butt," she said before Raimundo stole the Glasses off of her. "Hey!"
"Oh yeah, like you were any help when he sent that robot after us," he jeered.
"Is I who got Glasses from bad man," Vlad pointed out.
"Sorry Vlad; new guys last," Raimundo said. Vlad gave him a crestfallen look.
They were both startled when suddenly the Crystal Glasses were taken out of Raimundo's hands. Kimiko held up the talisman with a triumphant grin.
"Sorry Rai; ladies first." And then the Glasses were snatched out of her hands. Master Fung back flipped onto the stone steps and held up the spectacles.
"Perhaps we should settle this with a challenge," the master said slyly. Everyone except Vlad groaned since he was the only one who never experienced Master Fung's special 'challenges.'
The master put on the Glasses and, without even muttering the activation switch, they glowed brightly. Suddenly everyone was outside in the snow-covered plaza, the master in the middle of the ring.
"A simple game of tag should suffice," Master Fung said. "Merely touch my tunic and the Glasses are yours."
Kimiko struck a fighting pose. "Sounds good to me." She leaped at Master Fung, who dodged to the left. Kimiko went, "Hey!" as she fell into a snow bank.
"By looking into the future…" he dodged Omi as the kid flew over him. "…I can know your moves…" he ducked as Clay aimed for his head. The cowboy fell to the ground. "…Before you do." Master Fung jumped up as Vlad slid under him, the boy aiming for his feet.
Valerie watched as Vlad stopped sliding over the icy ground. Master Fung walked up to her, expecting another attack. Valerie instead took a deep breath and was about to ask-
"No, you may not have the Crystal Glasses," Master Fung interrupted her.
Valerie shrugged. "Worth a shot." She walked away. The master had to add in one more quip:
"I knew you would say that."
Back in the vault
Master Fung put the Crystal Glasses in a special tan-colored lens case and closed it. As he closed the stone vault shut, he said, "The power of the Crystal Glasses should not be taken lightly." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Only the wisest of Dragons should attempt to use them."
Valerie looked to her left in time to see the Cheshire cat grin stretching across Raimundo's face. With more important things on her mind than the Lusitanic boy's pranks, she left the vault with the others to get a look at the scrolls inside the Temple library.
The Temple library was a nicely sized room with cubbies lining up the walls. Instead of hard covered books or paperbacks found in normal libraries, this one was filled to the brim with ancient, priceless scrolls. Valerie went to the back of the room and took a good long look at the characters etched into the golden tile underneath a cubby. She was ninety percent certain that the scrolls inside were specifically about the Xiaolin Dragons. She took a few out, went to a desk, and began reading.
While Valerie still had trouble reading the ancient Chinese text, she had recently improved to the point where she didn't need to ask for help with her reading. She still couldn't read very fast, but it wasn't impossible for her to make out the proper meanings for each character. And right now she needed to use that knowledge to find out more about the Xiaolin Dragons in case Vlad had any funny ideas.
According to the scrolls, there were supposed to be four elements: wind, water, earth, and fire. Those were the basic elementals found in just about every mythology. Though what was odd was that the Chinese elements, Wu Xing, had five elements: earth, fire, water, wood, and metal. There was no mention of wind or aether anywhere. Valerie could understand why her element wasn't included, but why not Rai's? That didn't make any sense.
Now that she thought about it, why was aether included here at the Xiaolin Temple anyway? The Greek element didn't belong with the Chinese ones. It was something Valerie had wondered about but never really given any thought. She figured the answers would come eventually, so why not now, when she had all these scrolls to sift through?
"Val, you in here?" Kimiko's voice sounded through the room. Valerie turned to see the Asian and the American standing in the doorway.
"We were looking for you," Clay said as the two walked in. She shrugged her shoulders.
"Here I am."
"What are you looking up?" Kimiko asked peering at the scroll in Valerie's hands.
"Something was bugging me, so I looked up some stuff about the Xiaolin Dragons," she said. There was no need to mention her suspicions about Vlad yet.
"You mean you could actually read that without help?" Clay asked. "Good for you!"
"I know I'm so proud of myself!" Valerie said cheerfully.
"But why look us up?" Kimiko asked. "Master Fung already explained everything."
"Not exactly," Valerie said. "There was something he never mentioned, and I don't know if I'll be able to find it in these scrolls. If only I had that magical stalker scroll," she added quietly, thinking.
"Okay, I've heard you talk about this so-called 'stalker scroll,' but you never really explained it," Clay said, scratching his head.
"You know, the magical stalker scroll," Valerie said. She was met with blank looks. "It's the scroll Master Fung showed us with our picture in ink and all our information on it. It was supposed to help convince us to come to the Temple."
Clay and Kimiko gave her incredulous looks. Kimiko slowly shook her head. "We never saw anything like that."
"Some other monk from the Temple showed up on the ranch with an invitation," Clay said. "Far as I know Master Fung never came to Texas."
"Same with me," Kimiko agreed. "There was no stalker scroll or anything."
Valerie leaned back, shock registering on her face. Her brain refused to compute; the information she received was stuck in her ears, echoing throughout the chambers in a repeating loop.
She began to say, "What the hell-?"
"Valerie." Master Fung's voice suddenly resonated through the library. They all looked up to see the mentor standing in the doorway. "I must speak with you right away."
A little bit of dry wit escaped out of her mouth. "That's not suspicious." On somewhat shaky legs Valerie stood up and walked out of the room. Before she left she turned to look at Clay and Kim. Confusion could be seen on their faces. Good; they looked just how Valerie felt.
Master Fung led her to the Room of the Ancient Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu, where the closed tube of the Scroll itself was laid on the desk. The master opened it, revealing the blue circular window.
"I imagine you have many questions for me," Fung stated.
"Well, yeah," Valerie began. "Let's start with: why is aether a Dragon element? It's a Greek element. I know you said aether is about light, but it doesn't fit in with the rest of the Chinese elements. Hell, wind doesn't, so why is Rai here?"
"Wind is an important element regardless of culture barriers, as with aether," Master Fung said calmly. "But we are not talking about Raimundo. Tell me, Valerie, do you know what quintessence is?"
Valerie shook her head no.
"Quintessence is, in theory, the lost fifth element. It is neither hot nor cold, nor dry or wet. It is something subtler than light itself; supposedly it is the essence of life itself. Now, there are many theories involving quintessence, but what the Xiaolin Temple knows for certain is that aether, along with quintessence, cannot exist without the other four elements, as well as the other four cannot exist without the one."
Valerie was slowly beginning to comprehend this. "So it's a symbiotic relationship," she said.
Master Fung nodded. "But aether has a larger job than that. Due to quintessence, aether is a natural amplifier. Tell me, Valerie, do the other Dragons seem unusually strong to you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Their elemental powers are stronger with you around."
Valerie blinked. "So, I'm the power source."
"Precisely. This is the reason why the Xiaolin Temple considers aether to be a Dragon element. But it is also why the Dragon of Aether is rarely chosen." Master Fung turned back to the Ancient Scroll, sifting through the scroll's many pages until he came upon a series of ink figures. They were all full bodied and artfully drawn, with characters exhibiting names and dates at their feet.
Valerie gazed at the first set of figures, seeing five males in all. All were wearing the traditional Xiaolin robes, and all appeared Asian. "I'm guessing you didn't go off continent for these guys," she noted.
"No, most martial artists stayed in their respective countries at that time period," Master Fung explained. "But notice that there are five Dragons."
Valerie knew she shouldn't be making fun of the Temple's customs, but everything felt so surreal all of a sudden. It was like she was hearing Master Fung talk through water, her own movements sluggish. Everything her eyes looked at suddenly seemed to brighten, emitting a harsh light. Her grip on reality was loosening, and there was only one way she knew how to tighten it.
"And they're all guys. I guess girls didn't fit the bill," she joked lightly, trying not to panic.
"Yes, well, like I said, the time period was very different," Master Fung said quickly. He slid the paper through the golden shell and revealed a next set of Dragons. Like before they were all male, but this time there were only four of them.
"Water, fire, earth, air, but no aether," Valerie mused. "Why wasn't aether chosen?"
"That's not all," Master Fung said gravely. He continued to sift through the papers, revealing more and more generations of Xiaolin Dragons. Sometimes the Dragon of Aether popped up, once after three generations, another after five, or perhaps two or three on a row. But while the original four were always picked, a person representing aether was only chosen a handful of times.
"Why…" Valerie began only to have Master Fung cut her off.
"It is very dangerous for a Dragon of Aether to be chosen. They are the amplifier that makes the Xiaolin Dragons a force to be reckoned with. But there is also a great downside to the power. Should the Heylin forces ever realize the power aether wields, the consequences could be devastating."
Everything was beginning to blur together. Valerie needed to stop listening and think, think for a good long time on everything. This was too much information to absorb.
"Unfortunately, while aether can be considered one of the Xiaolin elements, the wielder is chosen too sporadically for it to be part of the Dragon X Kumei Formation," Master Fung said.
"The Dragon X what?" Valerie said dumbly.
"The Dragon X Kumei Formation is the move I will teach all my Xiaolin Apprentices when the time comes," Master Fung concluded. "And while there is much more to be said concerning the Dragon of Aether, I believe that, for now, we will leave it at rest."
Valerie agreed. Her ears were ringing, her legs were shaking, and she could barely stand upright. Her brain was going at a hundred miles per hour. She needed to unwind and think, or call Eric and hash it out with him, or maybe curl up with a good book and just forget everything for a while.
…Alas, no such luck.
Omi had soon gathered the monks-in-training into a small room and told them a horrible tale. The short version was that earlier, after Raimundo used the Crystal Glasses for some harmless tomfoolery, Omi had taken them back to the vault. The temptation was too great, so the little guy put them on to see his future. Apparently he saw a vision so horrifying that he refused to give the exact details. All he would tell them was that he was the great evil responsible behind it.
And now poor little Omi was sitting in a musty old corner full of woe. He refused to look at any of them, his shame was too great.
Valerie smelled bullshit. "Omi, the Crystal Glasses are wrong."
"Yeah," Raimundo agreed. "You don't strike me as someone who would go over to the dark side."
"Yeah, your, like, the exact opposite of evil," Kimiko added.
"You sure you were looking through the right side of the Glasses?" Clay asked the obvious question.
Omi gave a sad little nod.
Valerie rolled her eyes and sighed. "Omi, the fact that you're regretting your future evil acts is proof that you're a good guy. The Crystal Glasses may be able to see into the future, but that doesn't mean that whatever you saw is set in stone. You can still change it."
"But what if I can't?" Omi said in an almost hopeful tone.
"You still have to try."
He shook his head dejectedly. "That is not enough. It is decided. I must give up my position as a Dragon-in-training." He then ran out of the room crying.
"Next time, maybe someone else should give the pep talk," Kimiko muttered under her breath. Valerie glared at her.
"I wasn't trying to cheer him up. I was trying to use logic to make him see that what he saw in the Crystal Glasses was a hoax," she explained. "Can anyone honestly think that Omi is going to be some evil overland in the future?"
"Definitely not," Clay said. "The only thing that bothers me is why Omi saw that vision."
"Something stinks," Kimiko agreed. "I just hope we can figure this out before Omi does something stupid."
The next day
They hadn't seen Omi since yesterday. He had skipped dinner, but no one was really too worried about that. He had received a horrible shock and, fake vision or not, he was obviously devastated. The same applied to that morning. Eating must have been the furthest thing from his mind.
Trouble didn't really start until that morning's meditation session. Kimiko and Clay were already sitting on top of the vault, clearing their minds. Valerie was walking towards them when Raimundo flew into the room, nearly knocking over Vlad, who had been whistling and sweeping the floor.
Panting, Raimundo said, "Omi's gone."
"Aw, he's probably in the storeroom practicing his flying leopard attack," Clay said dismissively.
"No, like he is gone gone." Raimundo fished out a lined piece of paper with Omi's neat handwriting on it. "He left a note and everything."
Valerie took the note out of his hands and read it silently. "This is legit," she said finally.
"Did anyone know about this?" Kimiko asked, some despair coloring her voice. Everyone shook their heads. She turned her head to Vlad, who shrugged his shoulders and made a confused noise.
Valerie narrowed her eyes at him. She didn't believe him for a second. He was probably the one who suggested the plot to Omi in his darkest hour. And the little guy probably listened too.
"Hey!" Raimundo piped up suddenly. "I know where we can look! We need Master Fung!" He immediately ran out of the room.
"Well, he's obviously talking about the Crystal Glasses," Valerie said. She turned sharply to the others. "Alright, maggots, I want you bundled up and ready for action in t-minus ten minutes for Operation: Rescue Omi! Do I make myself clear?" she yelled.
"Sir, yes sir!" The rest snapped to attention and saluted her before running off. Valerie glared at Vlad's retreating back as he ran with the others. While she loathed the idea of bringing the Russian along, she didn't want him anywhere near the Shen Gong Wu vault. Besides, it was better to keep your enemies close.
…Except Vlad was nowhere to be found ten minutes later. He just disappeared. Valerie figured he just went to Jack Spicer in person to deliver the good news.
Though to be honest, she was more concerned with Omi. They had found him near Hawk Rock, the landmark near the river. He had been covered head to foot in a block of ice, nearly freezing to death. Naturally they brought him back and put him in front of a roaring fire as soon as possible.
It would have been a lot faster with Dojo though, but no one had seen the dragon in ages. It was probably best not to bother him anyway. He still had that rash to deal with.
"You should not have come for me," Omi said bitterly as the fire crackled. The only part of his body not encased in ice was his face, and that part they had to chisel out before Omi died of suffocation. "Did you not read my letter?"
"Yeah, and we're not buying it," Kimiko told him.
"B-b-but I saw it with my own eyes!"
"What you saw was probably a trick Vlad created," Valerie told him. "Was Vlad with you when you used the Crystal Glasses?"
Well, yes-but-!"
"But nothing," she said sharply. "Vlad must have used the Reversing Mirror on you to make you see a bad future when it's really a good one. Face it; he's working for Jack."
"No way!" Kimiko scoffed. "You saw him take down Jack. He's a good guy."
"It was probably an elaborate scheme to make it seem like that," Valerie said. "Jack's a lot of things, but he isn't exactly stupid."
"Yeah, I'll buy that when you have proof," Raimundo said as he opened the nearby trunk to get more logs. Dojo suddenly popped out, scaring the living daylights out of the Brazilian. The reptile sucked in ragged breaths as he leaned off the side.
When he calmed down, Raimundo asked, "Uh, Dojo, what are you doing in the wood box?"
Dojo shook his head to clear it. "It was Vlad! That snake was really working for Jack!"
"No way!" everyone said, shocked. They all stared at Valerie.
"I told you so!" she shouted triumphantly. And then she realized the implications. "Oh shit, I told you so."
"Even worse!" Dojo began to scratch himself. "My rash is starting to blister!"
"Can we keep this on a need to know basis?" Kimiko turned her face away in disgust.
"We'd better hurry, or we could lose out on a Shen Gong Wu bonanza," Dojo told them. He suddenly grew larger, popping out of the wood box and circling around the room twice before hitting his head on the roof. "Hop on!"
Everyone took a look at his blistering back and cringed. "Eeeeewwww!"
"Can't we just wait until Jack has all the Wu and take it from him?" Valerie complained.
"You sure you're not the evil one?" Clay asked. She glared at him.
On Dojo's back
According to Dojo, they were all headed to the tropics, so Valerie had switched from winter gear to a white tank top, jean shorts, and white tennis shoes. She kept her hair in a plait so she could keep off the heat and put on a white baseball cap to keep the sun out of her eyes.
Kimiko held a blow dryer to the Omi-cicle for the entire ride. For the first time Valerie saw the Asian in the same outfit twice. It was her adventuress outfit from way back when, during the time when the five of them had split up after the boulder incident. It must have been a rush job or something.
"Leave me be," Omi said sadly, his ice cube body tied down to Dojo. "I am evil. I will only corrupt your quest."
Kimiko turned the heat up on her blow dryer. "Less talk, more defrost."
Dojo flew over the island temples and landed. The gang quickly untied Omi and took him along despite his protests. They traveled through the temple as fast as they could, but since they were carrying extra weight, the going was tough.
And then Valerie remembered something. "Wasn't our last temple run the one with the Ring of the Nine Dragons?"
"Oh yeah, Hazel and Theo were still back in the Wu hunting game," Clay cottoned on. "How do you think they're doing?"
"Theo sold a lot of Hazel's invention ideas and now he's rolling in it deep," Kimiko announced. "He's been all over the news as some sort of scientific wonder boy. No word on Hazel though. I hope she's getting help."
"At least Theo's carving his own path," Valerie said. She turned to Omi, who was being carried by Clay. "See Omi? Even someone as evil as Theo could turn good."
"But Theo was never evil to begin with," he pointed out. "He was just following orders."
"Will you let me help you or not?"
"No."
"Well fine then," Valerie huffed as they went further into the underground of the temple. From there the stalagmites and stalactites loomed before them. And from there they could see the first of many Shen Gong Wu.
"The Shen Gong Wu are mine!" they could hear Wuya screech from down below. "All mine!"
Clay took Omi off his back and quickly tied the rope around him. "Hop on!" he said. Everyone did, and then Clay kicked the ground and the ice slid down, down the tunnel to where Wuya was.
"Sorry to bust up your little hoedown, but we'll take those off your hands," Clay said as they finally slid to a stop.
"What?" Wuya said surprised. "How can this be?"
"I do not understand," Vlad said mystified. "How are you so fast with the finding of him?"
"Uh, we used a shortcut." With an evil grin Rai held up the Crystal Glasses.
In a monotone, Jack ordered, "Jack-Bots, attack." The robots instantly appeared and began to shoot at them.
Valerie jumped kicked one into oblivion and landed in front of Vlad. He seemed to grow bigger, but he was really just using his large size to intimidate her. With a battle cry he attacked. Valerie kicked his chin and sent him reeling back.
"I always knew you were evil," Valerie said through gritted teeth as she dodged Vlad's fist. "It took me a while to prove it, but I did."
Vlad sneered at her. "You were so eager to trust me. You did not see me for who I really was." He threw another punch. She dodged again, his fist hitting rock and breaking it.
"Shroud of Shad-!" Valerie began to cry out only to have Vlad punch her right in the gut. She flew backwards, hitting a spire, the wind knocked right out of her. She coughed at Vlad loomed in front of her, fist drawn back.
Valerie jumped up, socking Vlad right in the chin. He went back, and she kicked him right in the stomach, making him fall on his read end.
Suddenly the cavern started to fill up with water, and it was filling up fast. Valerie was quickly washed away with the tide, forced back into Kimiko, who had been tied up by a Jack-Bot.
"We are really sucking today," Kimiko moaned as Valerie led her to higher ground.
"That's because Omi's still convinced he's going to be evil," she pointed out. "If only we could snap him out of it…"
"With this last Shen Gong Wu our crushing victory over weak-minded little ones is complete," Vlad sneered. Valerie got Kimiko out of her bindings and led her to the little island in front of the last Wu, some sort of helmet thing. Raimundo and Clay were also on the island while Omi just floated near them.
"Okay, hired muscle, not paid to gloat," Jack called out warningly as he floated over the scenery. He held the giant bag of Wu in his hands.
"But what was so easy to trick weak-minded Omi into believing he would become evil," Vlad announced.
"Called it," Valerie muttered under her breath.
"He wears the Crystal's Glass, has no idea future he sees is Reverse Mirror trick." Vlad laughed evilly.
"Wouldn't that make him see into the past then?" Valerie wondered out loud. She was ignored.
"What?" Omi said.
"This is why gloating should be left to the mastermind," Jack said right before the dots on Omi's head began to glow.
"TSUNAMI STRIKE: WATER!" Omi levitated upwards on a jet of water, with two other streams twisting around the pillar until it hit the ice encasing his body. It shattered apart, freeing Omi's limbs. He fell in front of the helmet Wu, and he and Vlad touched it at the same time.
"This is for payback, you lying trickster!" Omi declared. "I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!"
"The contest is: be the first to get out before the cave fills with water," Vlad said. "I wager Two-Ton Tunic."
"And I wager the Crystal Glasses," Omi said. "Let's go: Xiaolin Showdown!"
Instantly the water began to swirl around the two. Rock spires connected to each other and became golden spires with faces etched into them. Some of them connected to each other; others floated upwards towards the top, acting as stepping stones. The bag of Wu Jack had conveniently dropped was hanging on one such spire.
"GONG YI TAN PAI!" The two opponents shouted. The helmet Wu disappeared into the water to the side. Vlad immediately kicked Omi out of the way and went after it.
"It is no contest, beating one so puny!" he taunted before slamming into a gold spire. He then chased Omi around, while the little monk knocked spires in his way, trying to humiliate the Russian teen.
Then Vlad used the Two-Ton Tunic to just barge through the attacks. And then the two of them ran into a watery tunnel and out of view. The other monks were standing on an island high above the cave, looking down at them. Or trying to; there were so many tunnels and different viewpoints that they couldn't see them sometimes.
Then they saw Omi use the Crystal Glasses to dodge some wayward spires. They already knew the Glasses worked, but it was nice to see Omi own the challenge. He was soon climbing up a spiral staircase…towards a dead end. Undeterred he ran away from it and looked for another way out.
"Why doesn't he just use the Glasses to find the way out?" Valerie asked out loud as the Showdown dragged on.
"He probably figured it wasn't honorable," Raimundo said.
"Well that's stupid," she scoffed. "It'd make more sense to just get the Showdown over and done with before the cave fills with water and we all drown."
"But where's the fun in that?" Clay said happily as Omi continued to hit more dead ends.
And then Omi used his water powers to send a powerful jet stream at Vlad, knocking him into a spire. He fell down, hitting a staircase with other spires landing around him, their pointed ends creating a prison.
"Nice going Omi!" Kimiko cheered. "That's how you get vengeance."
"You sure you're not the evil one?" Valerie joked. Kimiko stuck out her tongue playfully.
Omi suddenly encased himself in a stream of water and flew around the cave, grabbing the sack of Wu. He flew towards them (Raimundo smirked and stuck out his thumb while Valerie got out a handkerchief and waved it about with a jaunty flick of her wrist) and gathered them off the island they were on. They all cheered as Omi got them to the top of the cave and out of the temple entirely. The helmet Wu was atop the temple; Omi grabbed it before they began to fall.
"DOJO!" they all cried. The dragon suddenly flew them off the stream, his rash finally cured. With the bag of Wu in hand they all flew towards the setting sun, once again victorious.
The chapter ended rather suddenly, but I didn't know how else to end it. Oh well.
So, thoughts anyone?