Now and Then
This chapter didn't go the way I expected it to… but I kind of like what happened with it!
Chapter 6
The stiff wind blew far beyond the mountains and over the ocean. The one carried on it didn't want to meet anyone. He could only focus on the one thing he was trying desperately to forget. Jack Spicer's words rung in his figurative ears, reminding him of the evils he'd done. Telling him in no uncertain terms that he was not wanted.
A small rational part of his mind told him that he should go talk to Dojo about this. Or Guan, he would understand. But the ancient spirit wasn't in the mood. He let the wind take him where it would until morning.
A few sunrises later, Dashi had come to the conclusion that he should check up on his old friends and enemies. He told himself that he could see what Chase Young was doing with the Hadoku Mouse, but he didn't believe that for a moment. Loneliness had taken hold a while ago, and it was finally too much to bear. He did hope to go unnoticed for a while, but Chase appeared as soon as Dashi's breeze swirled into the dark citadel.
"I wasn't expecting you here so soon," the warrior said with a frown.
"Looks like you were, or you wouldn't have come out to meet me," Dashi replied, taking his ghostly form.
"You delight in doing the unexpected," Chase countered. "I've come to expect it of you."
"Well, I've been missing my old friends. Besides, didn't you always tell me I spent too much time in the company of Evil? It's true."
"I see you finally tired of Spicer?" The warlord smirked. "Finally come to choose the great and powerful over the weak and pathetic?"
"Actually, Jack Spicer got tired of me first," Dashi shot back breezily and just a bit too quickly to make it as casual as he hoped. "So I thought I'd pay you a visit."
"Oh Dashi," Wuya said with a grin as she stepped from the shadows. "How the mighty have fallen. Dumped by Jack Spicer?"
"How truly pathetic," Hannibal Bean drawled from his perch on the chandelier.
"Hello Wuya," Dashi said calmly, ignoring both comments. "I see you're still powerless? And Chase, you were always so clean, now you're letting pests into your home?" He nodded slightly at Hannibal. All three glared daggers at him.
"We have a truce which, as I assured him, is very temporary," Chase replied icily. Hannibal merely smirked at this. "We had some issues to negotiate when you were rude enough to intrude on my space."
"Oh don't let me stop you," Dashi said, waving his hands and smiling slightly. Chase eyed him, frowning.
"I don't intend to. Wuya. Watch my… guest." The armored warrior stalked out into the courtyard without waiting for Hannibal Bean.
"We must catch up later, Dashi," the demon said with a dry chuckle as he hopped down and followed Chase outside. Wuya turned to face the ghost with a suspicious expression.
"What are you really doing here, Dashi?"
"I was in the neighborhood. It's good to see you again," he said with a smile. And it was. A nice change from a morally confused teenager, certainly.
"That's not what you said the last two times we met," Wuya hissed.
"That was different, you know that," Dashi insisted. It was business. Good and Evil, the eternal clash. That's what we signed up for. But it doesn't always have to be like that. It wasn't when we were younger. It's just you and me here, and we were friends before…"
"Stop," Wuya said flatly. "It didn't work out before, and we both know why. You never got the fact that Good and Evil aren't just jobs we can go home from at the end of the day."
"Sure they are," Dashi coaxed, though he knew it was a losing battle. "It wouldn't be so bad. I'm a bystander now, not a Xiaolin dragon. We could-"
"No," the Heylin witch cut him off. "It might work for you. For a while. But not for me. I couldn't do that and still be who I am, who I have to be. Who I want to be. This is my path. I chose it, and I won't go back even a step." Her expression softened a bit and she stepped closer, leaning in to mime a kiss on his ghostly cheek. "…But while it lasted, what we had was well worth it. And if it makes you feel better, I know perfectly well that I drove you to trapping me. Both times. …And you should know that you can never trap me forever," she said with a rather flirtatious wink.
"That's the way I like it," Dashi replied with a smile, his spirit feeling incredibly soothed. "So why did you let Chase take your powers?"
"I didn't let him," Wuya said, frowning irritably. "When he used the Serpent's Tail and Reversing Mirror to make me solid again, he took them from me." She shrigged in resignation. "It's either have no body and a few powers, or have a body and no powers."
"Interesting choice," Dashi mused, gazing at her and the jungle cats who had gathered in the doorway behind her. "I wonder-"
"I said no," Chase Young growled as he stalked back into the room. Hannibal Roy Bean hopped after him. "Leave my domain at once."
"Now Chase, don't be hasty," Hannibal said with a grin. "I'll give you some time to think my offer over. But don't take too long, or I may have to take my business elsewhere. Say, to your friend the monkey-boy?" He grinned at both Chase and Dashi.
"Oh really," Chase laughed sharply. "Have you fallen so far that you'd even beg for his help? Did even my useless housekeeper refuse you? You have to go to that idiot mortal?"
"Hey now, it's your fault Wuya lost her powers," Dashi pointed out, feeling much more generous now that his hurt feelings had been appeased and much of the burden of his old guilt lifted. "And Jack Spicer has some formidable talents if you're looking for machinery."
"Stay out of this, Dashi," Chase hissed. "It's none of your concern."
"No, no. Do tell, Dashi," Hannibal chortled delightedly. "You always were a clever one. Maybe you could find it in your heart of hearts to get me the Yin Yo-Yo or the Yang Yo-Yo."
"But you have the Ying-Ying Bird already," Dashi pointed out, smiling slightly. "Why would you need those?"
"I had to leave some things there when I came out," the bean said. "Things a little bigger than Ying-Ying could carry. What d'you say, Dashi?"
"Hm, sorry," Dashi said with a smirk, the condescension in his tone perfectly matching Hannibal's. "I just don't think your behavior's been too great lately. Maybe next millennium, if you're very good."
"I warn you," Hannibal said glaring balefully up at Dashi. "Don't underestimate Hannibal Roy Bean. I'm not playing games with you."
"Oh please," said the Grand Master, rolling his eyes. "What could you do to me? I'm already dead, but with all the skills I had in life."
"You Good folks always have a weakness. Usually another person." The bean grinned suggestively.
"Well let's see," Dashi said, pretending to think about that. "Two of your choices are right here, so you just tipped them off. Of the other… seven or so, they're always watching for you anyway. Not to mention, every one of them is pretty good with their self defense measures. And come on, I'm the wind itself. It's not like I can't be anywhere I want within minutes." He smirked confidently. "So threaten all you want, but I don't have any reason to help you."
"Hm," Hannibal grunted darkly. "If you say so. But I warn you, you will regret this. You haven't seen the last of Hannibal Roy Bean."
"That would be too much to hope for," Dashi agreed.
Hannibal smirked and leapt into the air as the Ying-Ying Bird swooped down, and landed on its back. The great cat warriors snapped at it, but a few strokes of its wings brought it soaring up into the air-
…Until a sharp gust of wind buffeted it from the rear, above, and the front. The bird screamed in alarm as it was forced down, and a waiting jaguar lunged up to catch it. The bird struggled to escape the cat's powerful jaws, but it was no use.
"Wuya, fetch me a cage. A small one." Chase and Dashi both grinned. Hannibal wormed his way out of the big cat's mouth, coughing and wiping off saliva.
"You just made yourself a powerful enemy, monk," he growled.
"If you recall, we've never been friends," Dashi supplied helpfully. The bean took a few long jumps to get out of sight.
Dashi turned back to Chase, who was giving him an appraising look. He gave the Grand Master a short nod as their eyes met.
"I think that despite your spat with Spicer, it would be beneficial if you return before Bean gets to him," the former water dragon suggested crisply. "Despite your bravado, you know he'll need help."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you didn't want him to get hurt," Dashi said, half teasingly.
"Then be thankful that you do know better," Chase said sharply. "Hannibal Bean should not be allowed to bring anything back from the Yin-Yang World. And I know for a fact that Spicer cracks easily under pressure.
"You're probably right," Dashi admitted. "I'll see you later, then!"
"Be careful," Wuya said with only a hint of her usual sarcasm as she returned with a small bird cage.
"Yes," Chase added. "Watch yourself, Dashi. I hoped you would have learned by now that letting things be is often far better than your well-intentioned meddling."
"I'll think about that. You two take care too," Dashi replied with a cheerful wave. He rose and became the wind again, riding the thermals back across the land and sea, to the Spicer residence.
"Hmph, snorted Wuya after a moment, as Chase took the Ying-Ying Bird and stuffed it into the cage. "Far needier than any self-respecting Grand Master should be."
"As so many humans are," Chase reminded her acidically. "But he's clearly still useful when he decides to be."
"…When he isn't sulking," Wuya added.
"Well, the same could be said of you," Chase said as he walked away with a smirk. Wuya paused, looked up to the sky, and then followed with the bird cage, pouting.