Note: Hey, someone asked about Edel's age in/around chapter two… I was going for five, but it's pretty ambiguous since Edel just matured so quickly. Yeah. I knew a five year old who would throw things at me. She was like a ninja. She would throw CDs like ninja stars at me and disappear behind corners… Um… She left bruises on me… Anyway, I love you all! Here's the next chapter!

Jack bit down on the wire cutter in his mouth, singing along rather incoherently to the music. He wasn't even thinking about the music and he didn't need to. He had the music playing so loudly it was vibrating the thick walls of the basement. It was background music. It was there to keep the atmosphere in place. There was nothing more and nothing less than that. Jack shifted forward in his chair to twist his hold on the clamp and dig further into the large contraption. Having Edel around was actually pretty inspiring.

He didn't want to settle for having just her, but… Eh. He'd been struggling for the past few hours to accept the futility of the situation. It was a big coming-of-age thing, like in those eighties movies.

The clamp he used to hold back the other components locked into place with a click. Jack scooted back in the chair and sat up more properly. His head was still banging with the beat of the song, but not a thought was put into to the music still playing. He removed the wire cutter from his mouth and dove back in to make the appropriate adjustments.

He was too busy to notice the rift behind him made by Edel. Now entering the darkly lit lab, Edel quickly placed her hands over her ears and frowned. With a brief glare to a Jackbot, it sped off to lower the music. She walked over to Jack and sat down on the table, to the right of the large chunk of metal he was working on. He saw her; she was sure of that. The goggles didn't make much of a difference to his sight, and she was right there. They continued on like that in silence for ten or so more minutes. It was fairly nice for the both of them to enjoy the company of another. For Jack it was because he was unused to it, and he truly enjoyed being around the girl he was so proud of. The anecdote of her also reminding him pleasantly of Chase was a wonderful addition to that. Edel was fond of the silence merely because she wasn't used to such things. She was new to everything. The books and her above-average brain usage made things much easier for her to mature and such, but her grip on the world was still pretty theoretical.

Jack was the first to break the silence. "Neat, blood. What happened with the showdown?"

She mused over the words for a minute, unsure if this really was the end to the agreeable silence. "Mutant cat blood." She held up the hand that had been intimate with the cat head earlier. "Ashley gave me the Wu she had gotten…. Oh, and Wuya's blood, too."

Jack finally moved away from the machine to fully focus on her. "What?"

She smiled and began fiddling with her long hair. "I broke her nose, and it looked bloody, so I'm guessing there's some blood that's hers."

Behind the yellow goggles, Jack's eyes were narrowed in confusion. Well, females in nature were known to be more vicious. "Alrighty then."

Happily, she pointed over to the cabinet they kept the Wu in. "I got two off of Ashley for you, killed her kittens, broke Wuya's nose, and even invited Chase over—so tonight us three can celebrate!" Listing off her accomplishments, in her mind, was supposed to please Jack.

They did not. Not really. He was quiet, repeating her words over and over in his head. Then, "You did what! You invited Chase over!"

Edel pursed her lips. "Well, we have to celebrate this day. And you always talk of him so fondly, it seemed only logical that you would want him to be with you to celebrate."

"Why do we need to celebrate?"

"But it's your birthday." She looked him over incredulously. "You're supposed to celebrate."

"No." His tone of voice rose slightly. "I just relax and use the day to work on things." He shook his head, as if disgusted. "No parties or dinners or anything. It's not an important date."

Edel reached out and mussed the flamboyant red locks of Jack's head. "No gel or showdowns today, just sitting in front of… Whatever that thing is?"

"Yeah." He knocked her hand away before getting distracted. "It's going to be awesome when it's finished. I've been working on the plans for it for over a year now; if I can get it working, then it'd be a great addition."

"Addition?" Edel smiled, happy that he had forgotten all about being angry for the inevitable dinner party she was planning. "You mean an addition to me and the Jackbots when fighting the monks?"

"No, no, no!" He said with a big, dark grin. "There's a warehouse in Egypt I've got set up—been steadily building stuff and adding to it for a while now."

Her smile dropped a bit as confusion became more abundant. "Why?"

"For when I take over the world." He answered as if she had just asked the stupidest question in the world.

He let Edel take a few minutes to review the information in her head, both smiling now. "Why do you go after the Wu, then? Why not take over now?"

"Well," Jack pushed his goggles up to his forehead, excitedly beginning to explain. "Wuya is all about magic and Chase has got pure strength as well as magic. The monks are also skilled and all that with the Wu and fighting. The more Wu I get, the more tests I can run on their properties. The Xiaolin-Heylin conflict is a big obstacle. I mean, if I tried now, I'm sure they wouldn't be able to stop everything I've got, but by the time I've finally stopped them, everything would have been destroyed. That'd be just some pretty awesome chaos. I wouldn't be able to rise into power that way… Anyway, I'm trying to combine the magical properties of Wu into my machines and I'm uploading all the footage of the monks' fighting style so the A.I. units can act accordingly while fighting. And I've got to make them immune to Wuya's magic. I have to make the stuff strong enough to last against Chase."

"Um… But… Chase Young is…"

"Yeah, yeah, the biggest problem." That flat-out astonished Edel in a very obvious manner. "But this is why I'm waiting. I've got to be successful in order to get him to accept me and stuff."

"Oh… Oh!" Edel nodded, calming down. She slipped off the table and took a few deep breaths. He was trying to take over the world and go against the Heylin and the Xiaolin side to impress Chase. "Jack… Do you like Chase?"

"Yes." She simply adored the way he didn't hesitate. "But," That was a word Edel decided to hate. "All I'm hoping for is to get to be called an ally of his. Someone he'd work with or depend on. That's all I want, really."

Edel wanted say that was bullshit, since it obviously was, but instead decided to prod. "Why just that?"

"Well," He began, finding the question to be pretty absurd. "I'm mortal and he hates me. And—"

"I'm immortal, right?"She interrupted.

"Yes." He didn't see where this was going at all.

"Can't you just, like, find whatever it is that makes me and Chase immortal and replicate it?" Edel moved her hands about in circles as she spoke, visualizing it in her head, but unable to correctly show Jack. "I mean that soup stuff in Chase, he needs to have it replenished and all that but you made it able to… to…"

"Replicate." He supplied.

"Yes, replicate, you were able to do that to my genes, so why not do that to yours?"

Jack's mouth opened and closed a few times. Then, after the surprising accomplishment of widening those already large red eyes, he bolted up. "I should do that!"

Edel placed a hand on his shoulder before he could run off. "Tomorrow."

"What?"

"Dinner is in two hours. And Chase is coming over." She teased her fingers through her messy gray bangs with a sly look. "If he hates you, he won't come. But he doesn't hate you, so he'll come. You should probably change out of those messy clothes."

---

Chase returned home to… a rather… interesting scene. The stench of Wuya's blood hung in the air. He was immensely surprised. He was under the assumption that the woman had hit menopause some hundred years ago… This was just not possible.

"Chase!" He turned to see Wuya running towards him, wanting sympathy from the pleading look on her face. The white strips over a red, swollen nose gave reason to the smell. She ran up to him and stopped, waiting.

"Yes?"

She scowled. "Don't you want to know what happened to me?"

He gave her a dubious look. "Have I ever cared for your wellbeing?"

Wuya gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. "Do you know what Jack did?" She demanded. "That little…" If Chase found out about Edel's origins, then how would he react? It really did puzzle her. Would he want to destroy the girl, or would he decide to train her more properly. Wuya knew as sure as Jack was gay that he wouldn't be able to train her to fight properly. One could only get so far watching videos and reading books. She let out an exasperated sigh as she was calming down. Men were a mystery to her at times. Human men weren't but men like Chaser were.

Chase folded his arms and smirked. "Did the girl hit you?"

She nodded, being extra careful with what she said. "Yes."

"Did she say why?" He never missed a beat. After all, Jack was the only one could surprise him or leave him speechless. Everyone else was predictable and boring.

Grumbling, Wuya folded her arms. "Something about Jack's honor…" It was awfully immature of her, but then again most of the Heylin's current batch of villains weren't much better.

"Hm." Chase turned away from the parasitic witch. He reluctantly reminded himself of Edel's repetitive hints. Only Jack would be ignorant enough to do something of that nature without asking permission. Reiterating the words in his head had made the meaning abundantly clear, but it was still hard to accept. It explained why Jack had lied back then, and it explained… pretty much everything. Everything seemed to calm down a bit now that he knew though.

How in Hell had Jack managed to create a being without magic? Chase had once been acquainted with an alchemist who tried, without success, for years to create a homunculus. Chase could only assume Edel was similar to that. The test tube he remembered seemed to be a mere incubator. It was almost unbelievable that a mere boy of… of…

"Wuya, how old is Jack now?"

"Uh…" She dropped everything she herself had been musing over (whatever it was it wasn't important) and gaped at him. "He's… He's… not legal!" She practically shouted now. Clearly her mind was more perverse than anyone would have imagined for someone so old. "He's only fifteen! Or… Oh, yes, he should be sixteen, now." She nodded furiously with a scowl to match. "He's far too young. Only sixteen. Just sixteen."

He watched her for a moment more, but even he couldn't resist the charming smile that soon appeared. "I should wait two more years, shouldn't I?"

She made a strangled noise and her shoulders convulsed slightly.

He chuckled lightly at the sight and turned away from her. There were no doubts in his mind that a dinner with Jack would be even more entertaining than Wuya withering about in such a panic. That was saying a lot since Wuya in pain was pretty enjoyable.

---

As per usual, Chase didn't relinquish his armor despite knowing there would be no threat at Jack's. No one would ever complain about it, though. He did look rather good in it. Anyway, his Jack found his hauteur to be desirable. Everyone knew that—it was a good trait for a villain to have and even Wuya would occasionally express her admiration of it. She had a fair amount of it herself as well, but that was beside the point. The point was, after mentioning all this, was that Chase looked good at the moment and he most certainly knew it.

He teleported into Jack's mansion. The first thing he saw was jack's back to him, shouting at Edel.

"I'm not wearing a tie!"

"But you need to wear it!" She whined, not particularly caring that Chase was directly behind Jack.

"Why?" He demanded.

Edel heaved a sigh. "It'd make the outfit better." And it would provide an easy wrist-tying device since Jack didn't wear a belt. She didn't say that part out loud, but she wanted to just to have him put it on.

"No." He dropped the red tie onto the ground before her. Jack then turned around to leave the room, but ended up running face-first into Chase's chest. He was used to crashing into the armor, but it always forced a "meep" out of him.

"Good evening Spicer." He smirked down at Jack's shell-shocked expression.

"You're… here…" Jack slowly backed up from Chase, wrapping his mind the idea of Chase actually showing up for dinner.

"I was invited."

"Right." Jack slowly nodded.

This wasn't going fast enough, though. Not as far as Edel was concerned. She cleared her throat and motioned towards a long gray table. "I'll get the food. Sit."

Jack moved his attention towards her. "That's a bit impolite, ya know."

"I don't care, much." She licked her bottom lip. "Anyway, I'll be right back!" She ran out of the room and the two males were left alone.

Chase motioned gracefully towards the table and Jack obeyed without even thinking. Chase honestly had to hold back a laugh at seeing how cute Jack was looking so shocked and… and seeing that the button up shirt, although black, was made up of very soft and thin material. Chase firmly believed that his skin would be softer than the shirt.

"So, uh, thanks for coming, Chase… I… uh… I didn't plan this… Or… uh…" Jack looked down to the table, frowning in slight annoyance. Edel was difficult to deal with most of the time, but all females were like that in Jack's opinion. She was great, but very… mysterious. Mysterious and demanding—too many women in Jack's life were like that to be healthy for him.

"I assumed as much, Spicer." He sat down on the opposite side of Jack just as Edel came walking back into the room.

She quickly moved up to the table with a smile plastered on her face. Edel set down a metallic stray with three bowls of soup. She was smiling like a little boy who'd just got his first porn magazine. "I made the soup myself." This clearly meant that they would have to have some. "The rest the robots did as usual."

Chase looked over to Jack. "The robots cook for you?"

"Yeah… It won't be anything good like you're used to, but… it's nutritional." Jack's nervous smile was delightful, but Chase could hardly understand how the food would be nutritional when Jack constantly looked underfed and lacking in the health department.

Edel snapped her fingers to get their attention. She was hesitant to have to interrupt them, but things had to be done. "Try my soup; it's wonderful, I promise." She insisted with a fair amount of arrogance in her voice.

Jack gave a small sigh and leaned over the table to grab a bowl.

Chase immediately jumped up and grabbed Jack's hand. "Do not eat the soup." He ordered. Jack was pretty occupied with the fact that Chase was touching him—and not hurting him, but Chase was slowly calming himself down. No good would come out of yelling at the girl.

"Wh-what's in the food?"

"Not poison." Edel stated, still proud despite having the plan foiled.

"There is an aphrodisiac in the food." His amber eyes narrowed onto Edel. Chase had been able identify the scent before anything had happened. Slowly, he let go of Jack's hand and moved back into his chair.

Edel placed her elbows on the table and set her head in her hands. The girl kept on grinning. "You should have just gone with it, but I see you want to make things difficult. This is a great opportunity for you."

He glared at Edel for a moment. Jack looked between the two, quite busy being completely confused. "Spicer, have you ever wondered why couples wait years after they've even gotten married to have kids?"

"Uh…"

Chase pointed to Edel. "This is why, Spicer."

Jack looked down to the food, hoping to pretend the insult hadn't occurred just as he usually did when name calling and digs were spoken. Then, of course, he realized the implications Chase had made. Chase knew about Edel. Fuck. He looked to Chase, slightly fearful, but the Heylin warrior made no move to touch the subject again—or kill Jack. Things seemed to be going great just because he was still alive.

Edel clapped her hands together. "I've got it!" She announced. It was like she just found out the meaning of life. "Lack of sex has forced you to repress all desires so that you wouldn't go insane."

The two males stared at her with confusion. Actually, Chase had a bit of irritation thrown in there, too.

Her gold eyes moved to Jack devotedly. "That's why Chase won't fuck you!" She explained happily. "I bet if you strip his mind will stop repressing it all and he'll jump you."

Chase, finally, let his voice rise. "Why would I jump him!" It was more like an insult than a question; the atmosphere was very heated at the moment.

However, Edel would not stand for such comments. Really. She bolted up from her seat with vehemence radiating from her being. "Because he wants you to!" She shouted back even louder than Chase had.

Now, Jack wasn't a "sissy". He didn't slink down into the chair. He didn't run off. He didn't even blush. He just averted his eyes and grimaced, waiting for the vicious pair to settle down so they could move past this. As aforementioned, he never denied being obsessed with Chase. It was others' naivety that denied them the assumption of him wanting the handsome man to pound his cock into Jack. Yeah, he wanted to be accepted as a true Heylin ally to Chase, but he also wanted to finally get some action.

Chase growled at her, not taking his eyes off her as he too rose up. "Spicer, control your pet!"

Edel raised her arms, claws extending out as she hissed. "I'm not a fucking pet, I'm the daughter and you two are the fucking—yes, the should be fucking—couple!"

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. "Edel…"

Chase produced his own claws and retaliated. "We are not together! You cannot always make reality how you want it to be!"

"Oh, is that supposed to be some sort of underlying hint at why you turned evil, or is that your excuse for not making a move on Jack?" Her volume had lowered some, but the malice in her words had increased.

There was a reason Chase meditated daily and this girl—his own flesh and blood—was making it all worthless. He could feel the burning desire to transform and kill escalating, but he had to refrain from doing so. It wasn't only a matter of pride, of course.

"Edel." Jack said, quietly, and surprisingly sternly. "I appreciate it, but it's not your place, nor anyone's, to do anything like this." He looked over Edel for a moment, and then to Chase. It was rare to see Chase get so worked up. It was even rarer to see it happen over someone who wasn't Jack. Watching it was odd for him, but also a good wake-up. "We've been a bother to you." He concluded slowly and hesitantly. "Sorry." He whispered the last, but knew well both of them would be able to hear it. Red eyes looked back to Edel.

She stood her ground, still standing and frowning. She didn't like the way things were when she had seen them. She didn't like it now that nothing was happening. But, she had the power to fix it. Somehow, someway, she knew she did. The arrogance might have played a part in obtaining that information for her, though. "It is my place, actually." She kept staring at Chase, but the malice had diminished to a careful, chiding tone. "Your focus is always on Jack when he's there. You don't watch the showdowns when Jack's in them. You watch Jack."

The immortal's eyes remained hard set in a glare.

So, she continued. "He's cute, isn't he?"

Jack stood up, a frown adorning his face. "Edel, you need to drop this. You're just making up random crap to piss him off. He will kill us if he wants to. He hates us both; don't get us killed with your games."

It was a bit odd for Jack to be the one to try to cease the chaos—this sort of stressful antics was usually his fault.

The immortal sighed, calming down in an extremely quick manner. "Spicer, I would never kill you."

Edel took a few steps over to Chase and folded her arms. "Why, though?"

"Why," Chase repeated, clasping his hands behind his back in a more formal manner than Edel. "I must agree with Jack that that's none of your business."

Jack froze, understandably, of course. Edel just grinned triumphantly. It wasn't Spicer he had said, after all. No. He had said Jack. Currently, Jack's mind was pretty much having a panic attack. It was a happy panic attack, though.

Edel, if she hadn't the masterful control over herself that she did (and probably got from Chase), then she would have been shouting out something along the lines of "fuck, yes!" since things were surely going in the direction she wanted them to now. "Well," Relief was evident in her voice. "I'm going to go over to the Monks' temple to bug them. I'll be at their place until later tomorrow." When Chase finally looked back to her, she licked her lips motioned with her head to Jack. "Bye, boys."

Chase turned his auburn eyes back on Jack, not bothering to watch Edel walk out of the room. "You certainly do enjoy creating havoc, don't you?"

Jack gaped for a moment before mumbling. "It's a habit of mine…"

"So it is." He agreed with forced casualness.

There was one word to describe it all: awkward.

Second Note: This is called a cliffhanger…? I think… The next one shall be… fun to write. Or… Yeah.