Omi's eyes were wide open, his breath caught in his chest. His body refused to move. He couldn't speak, couldn't hear… All he could comprehend was the shining metal of the sword jammed hard into the cold ground only inches from his face.
His eyes slowly traveled up Jack's trembling arm and came to rest on his eyes. Omi felt a wave of sorrow rush through his body; the depth of frustration, anger, and shame was all too apparent in those ruby eyes.
"J-Jack…." Omi's voice came out small, almost inaudible. He wasn't sure if his enemy had heard him or if he was even listening. "Jack…" He slowly maneuvered himself out from under Jack's form and knelt before him.
Two tears fell, and black clad shoulders shuddered as Jack's head lowered. "I can't do it……. I can't…"
Raimundo let out a deep breath of relief; he would have lost it and killed Jack himself if the sword would have injured Omi. He couldn't help but glare death at the self-proclaimed boy genius. "Good, Omi's alright," he whispered to an equally relieved Clay and Kimiko. "Jack's cowardice has finally paid off in our favor." Kimiko smirked, but Clay was silent. The Texan kept his eyes on Jack, his hands balling into fists so tight that his knuckles drained of color.
Omi felt a saddening combination of pity and empathy. True, he was more than grateful to still be alive, but… Seeing Jack in such a pathetic state was tugging at his conscience. With a sigh, he scooted closer to Jack and knelt down. "There is so much pain in your eyes, Jack……… Please…. Let me help you…."
"Omi what are you doing?" Kimiko said, her eyebrows furrowed. "Get us out of here before he changes his mind; he was going to-"
"I said I couldn't." Jack's voice came low. "I…. I couldn't have done it…. If… If I would have…. I would have given Chase what he wanted…"
"But doesn't that make you happy?" Clay said darkly. "Isn't that what makes your life worth living?"
"My life would have ended, too." Everyone fell silent, their eyes resting confusedly upon the boy genius. "He wants…. My life to end…"
"I don't follow," Rai said suspiciously.
"You guys are my life," Jack said in a quiet voice. "Don't you understand…? Ever since our first battle… I constructed my livelihood around you guys…. I wanted to build better robots, come up with better one-liners… After a while, I…. I started looking forward to our battles… Losing was hard, but I always felt the need to try harder and harder…." He looked down at his hands. "I put so much effort into trying to make myself visible to Chase that I forgot who I became visible to in the first place… By killing you… I would have erased all of those great experiences… Without you guys, I'm nothing… And he knew that. He wanted me to know and feel that I was worthless."
Omi didn't know what to say. The others were equally silent; did they really mean so much to him that they kept him grounded in sanity, in reality? Omi timidly reached a hand toward Jack. He silently wished that he could do something, anything, to relieve the turmoil his enemy was suffering from. In all of this time, Omi never would have guessed that this was what it was like to be Jack Spicer; to spend so much time proving to others that you exist that, in time, you lose your own will partway through. "Jack, I-" His hand was harshly slapped away.
"Get out of here," Jack hissed. "All of you… You need to leave." He rose to his feet, pressing a button on the remote. The cage bars disappeared.
"What is going on?" Omi inquired, making his way over to his friends.
"Before you woke up….. I called Chase on my video phone and told him to come here," Jack said. "He'll be over here any minute to watch me murder all of you-"
Clay was upon Jack in only three steps. He slammed Jack into a wall, holding the scrawny, terrified youth by his neck. He choked a bit, grabbing onto Clay's hands. "Double crossin' sidewinder!!" Clay growled viciously. "All you're doing with this emotional outburst of yours is stallin' for time! You set this up, didn't you?!"
"Put him down, Clay," Kimiko said, casting a glare at Jack as Clay roughly released him. "If Chase really is on his way, we don't have time to waste on Jack."
Clay stepped away from Jack, keeping his eyes locked on him. "If you ever try anything like this again, Spicer…"
Omi opened his mouth to protest his friends' actions, but an uncomfortable cold feeling shrouded the room. Everyone went quiet. A look of panic shone in Jack's eyes, and as he looked at Omi, he could tell the young monk felt it too. Without a word, Jack rushed over to his personal Shen Gong Wu vault and quickly pulled out the Shroud of Shadows, thrusting it into Omi's arms and herding the other warriors into a dark corner. "Jack, what are-"
"I'm saving your lives," Jack said quietly. "If he finds out you're still alive… Or that you're still here… He'll kill you. I can't let that happen."
"How are we so sure we can trust you when you've doublecrossed us dozens of times before?" Rai said acidly.
A look of shame came across Jack's face. "I know that… But I don't want to see you guys die…. You're all I've got…" He glanced at Omi. "Plus…. Out of all of the people I've known… You're the only ones to make me feel visible." Omi's eyes widened, but before he could say anything, Jack activated the Shroud of Shadows and lowered it over the four of them.
"What do we do, Omi?" Clay whispered.
"We trust him…. I know I do….." Omi felt positively helpless as he surveyed the look of utter terror on Jack's anxious face, but against Chase Young in a place like this, their best bet was to follow Jack's plan.
Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and suddenly, he felt that same foreboding presence that to this day paralyzed him with fear. He knew that he was there, eyeing him like a hawk with those piercing reptilian eyes. Jack drew in a deep breath, mustering up his steadily declining courage and turning to stare at the darkened hallway from which this evil energy was emanating. A pair of demonic eyes burned in the darkness like embers and, slowly, they began to approach. Jack gulped; as Chase's sleek form melted through the shadows, he suddenly felt as though he were being stalked, especially as the warrior began pacing around him.
Each step seemed calculated…. Predatory….
Those eyes… They never left Jack, not even for a second.
"Well?" Chase's voice purred. "Where are they, Spicer?"
Jack was frightened beyond belief… He wanted to disappear, anything to get away from those burning eyes. He felt a rush of cold wind, and before he could even flinch, a hand sharply came across his face, knocking him off of his feet. Chase loomed over him, then roughly grabbed his neck.
"Didn't I ask you a question, worm?" Jack winced, but turned his face away. Chase narrowed his eyes. "You dare defy me?" Jack's eyes shot open as Chase's free hand shot forward, striking his sternum with uncanny force. He bit back a whimper, gritting his teeth tightly together.
"They're…. N-Not here…" Chase dropped him roughly, and the boy curled into a ball as he struggled to breathe through the searing pain in his chest.
"Then where are they?" The words came out slowly. Jack was almost too petrified to answer.
"I let them go." Jack let out a strangled cough, raising his head to look at Chase. "I'd never do something like that to them. If I killed them… I may as well have killed myself-" Chase made a swift movement, and the next thing Jack knew, he was on his back and the pain in his chest had tripled. He winced as Chase's boot stomped onto his sternum, gradually applying pressure.
"One simple task, worm. That was what I asked of you…." He harshly yanked the sword he'd given to Jack out of the ground, surveying the smooth, clean metal affectionately. "I gave you a chance… And in the time I allowed for you to alleviate your shameful level of worthlessness, you attached your futile emotions to your prey when all it would have taken is one clean swipe." As quick as a serpent, Chase sliced the sword across Jack's front. The boy let out a yelp; the sheer speed had torn through his jacket and his undershirt. "But I digress… This place is far too small for me to properly teach you a lesson in following my orders." He snapped his fingers and, instantly, two large panthers slunk from the shadows, grabbing each of Jack's arms in their jaws and walking out into the night. Chase stayed behind, and a smirk came upon his face. "If you wish to protect him, Come and get him from me."
In the blink of an eye, he was gone.
Omi flung the Shroud of Shadows off of himself and his teammates, falling to his knees and pounding the ground with a fist. "Curse him!!..." He looked at his friends with worried eyes. "We must… We must save Jack…. There is no telling what Chase will do to him if we don't…"
The question of "why" lingered silently in the air like translucent fog, but it soon faded as the monks figured it would be unfair to simply do nothing.
"Omi's right," Kimiko said. "Jack's been our enemy for so long, and every time we've tried to trust him, he's betrayed us… But today…. He could have killed Omi, but he didn't… He could have sold us out to Chase, but he didn't. We owe him, double time."
Clay ran his fingers across the brim of his hat with a grimace. "I gotta admit…. I'd feel like a heel if we didn't help him out. It undermines the idea of justice if we're selective about it."
"Problem though," Rai said. "I'm all for helping Jack out this once, but even so, what about Chase? He knew we were here, you guys, so for all we know, he's using our sympathy for Jack to lure us into a trap."
"Even so," Omi snapped, "we must try. I refuse to do nothing. He may be our enemy, but no one deserves to suffer so much at the hands of Chase young." He began making his way out of the room with his friends close behind. "I am going to go to his aid, but I must return to the temple for a brief moment to pick up more Shen Gong Wu in case it is a trap. You do not have to come with me." With that, Omi sprinted off in the direction of the temple with Rai, Kimiko, and Clay bringing up the rear. The three of them held a silent conversation with their eyes…. Was Jack really worth risking their lives for?