CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: WRECKAGE

Omi and Raimundo trudged through the charcoal black ruins of the Temple. The structure of the temple had diminished completely, leaving nothing but the blackened wood of the once proud Temple behind. The ruins were still smoking and what was left of the temple was damp, but every inch of the fire had been extinguished. Clay was leaning against a broken post of the Temple, attempting to rest his sore leg. Dojo was sobbing silently on Clay's soldier and had been ever since he realised Master Fung was still inside the Temple when the fireball hit the Temple. All of them were covered in ash, soot and sweat. They had exhausted themselves putting out the flames.

"There's still no sign of Master Fung…" Raimundo said quietly as Omi glanced around the ruins nervously.

"I guess we should look for… the bodies…" Omi said softly. A loud wail emerged from Dojo, who blew his nose on Clay's robes loudly. Clay was disgusted, but said nothing to Dojo about it. Omi bowed his head sadly, tears welling in his eyes. Master Fung was raised Omi from a small child, and although he was his teacher, Omi had also considered him to be somewhat of his fatherly figure. Raimundo looked at the floor, feeling as though watching Omi well up was too uncomfortable.

To the monks, it seemed as though all hope was lost. Without a leader, they would never finish their training as Xiaolin Warriors, and if they never advance to the correct stage, they would never be able to become the advanced warriors that they needed to become in order to save the world from evil. They would need to be stronger than they were to defeat Chase Young; especially now Kimiko was no longer among them.

"I can't believe Kim did this…" Raimundo said after a long an awkward silence. He sat down on a blackened lump, which he assumed used to be a chair of some sort. Clay nodded in approval and Omi said nothing for a long time. He just stared at the floor, looking as though he was about to burst into tears at any second.

"We have to stop her… don't we?" Omi eventually said, "She has truly become what I feared she would." Raimundo looked up at Omi as he spoke. Omi avoided his gaze and diverted his attention to a smoking pile of ash on the floor so that Raimundo would not see the tears which spilled from his eyes.

"Yes Omi… We do…" Raimundo walked towards the tiny monk and put his tanned hand upon his shoulder. Omi bowed his head sadly, looking at the ground. Raimundo noticed a few water droplets falling to the floor from Omi's face. Raimundo patted his back sympathetically in an attempt to comfort him. He turned to Dojo, who blew his nose noisily on Clay's robes again.

"Dojo," Raimundo addressed the tiny green dragon, "I want you to do something for us." The dragon looked at Raimundo. "I want you to circle the surrounding area and see if this…" Raimundo paused for a moment but then continued, "-has happened anywhere else." He noticed Clay raise his eyebrows. "Just in case…" he added hastily.

Dojo sniffed and nodded. He hopped down from Clay's shoulder and transformed into the giant dragon they were so familiar with. Dojo disappeared into the sky as the monks watched him go.

"Y'know Rai, I reckon you're gonna' be a great leader some day." Clay told Raimundo in an attempt to cheer up Omi. Omi would usually have been infuriated that Clay would say something so kind to Raimundo and not him, but Omi appeared not to notice that Clay had even spoken at all. Raimundo smiled slightly at the cowboy.

There was a small jingling sound and the grinding sound of rock moving. Raimundo, Omi and Clay snapped their heads, looking for the source of the noise. The monks noticed a blackened figure rising from the floor. Slowly, many men rose from the floor. The monks stared, not quite sure what to feel; scared, confused, defensive?

It was a while before the monks suddenly realised who the blackened figures were.

"MASTER FUNG!" Omi screamed and ran to the figure, leaping on top of him and hugging him tightly.

"Master Fung?"

"What?"

Raimundo and Clay clicked at the same time. The figures were the older Xiaolin Monks, who had risen from inside the Shen Gong Wu Vault. The jingling noise had been the sound of the bells, which opened and closed the vault, and the sound of grinding rock had been the vault opening.

"You have done well." Master Fung's voice was hoarse and dry, barely more than a whisper. He remained rigid and stiff while Omi clung to him. He cleared his throat and the tiny monk dropped off his body, smiling apologetically, blinking away the tears in his eyes.

"Master Fung… I can't believe you're alive!" Clay said in delight.

The old monks wearily looked at Clay. Clay hopped over to them on his crutches while Raimundo raised his eyebrows.

"Guys, we gotta take them to the cave first. They need to rest." Raimundo told Omi and Clay, who turned around to face him. When they registered what he had said, Omi and Clay looked at the older monks, who looked tired and weary. Omi and Clay nodded at Raimundo.

Master Fung looked at Raimundo with pride. The young boy was caring, loyal and showed the skill of true leadership. Master Fung allowed a smile to form on his blackened face before nodding at them, thanking Raimundo without words. The other old monks muttered amongst themselves. Raimundo and Clay began to make their way through the smouldering ruins, with several old, tired and weary monks hobbling behind them. Omi went down into the opened vault and grabbed what Shen Gong Wu were in there. It didn't seem safe to leave them all in the vault when they were no longer being guarded. Omi emerged from the Vault carrying a tower of Shen Gong Wu, which were not only heavy, but also the pile was bigger than Omi. He began to trudge after his friends, the Shen Gong Wu safe in his arms.

Kimiko had been observing the Xiaolin Showdown for over forty-five minutes and Kimiko would have bet her life on the winner. They had both been fighting, and there was no question that Wuya was trying her best, but Chase had not even been struck properly. Every time Wuya got near him, he knocked her back and she charged again. They were both moving at lightning speeds and Kimiko was having difficulty to see anything well from her seat in the stands of the Coliseum.

Within the first few seconds of the match starting, Chase had knocked down Wuya, when she snapped her fingers and four of her stone warriors rose from the floor. They had somehow managed to distract Chase for long enough for her to get back onto her feet and charge again. He destroyed them effortlessly, but they seemed to infuriate him. Kimiko watched silently, but she was sure that Chase viewed Wuya using her stone warriors as cheating. Chase was too honourable to do the same to Wuya, even if his jungle cats would tear her apart. They were tougher than they looked; a fact Kimiko knew all too well. Privately, Kimiko wondered whether Wuya had used her stone warriors because she knew she was going to struggle against Chase.

Since then, Wuya and Chase were both moving far too fast for Kimiko tell anything other than that they both wanted to win, particularly Wuya. Kimiko could hear her grunting with effort, which mean that she was most likely struggling.

Wuya ducked out of the way of Chase's blow and aimed a kick to his chest, which he dodged and swept his leg along hers, knocking her on the floor. He approached her, ready to see if she surrendered, but she got back up and hardened her glare towards him. Chase stood, with his arms behind his back and eyes closed, waiting for her to attack. Wuya leapt towards him again, aiming to claw at Chase with her sharp nails; a manoeuvre Kimiko felt was sure to mean desperation. Wuya somehow managed to catch Chase's cheek as he ducked, leaving a shallow slice in his face across his cheekbone. Chase reacted to this by gritting his teeth and simply flicking Wuya on her chest. The sheer power in Chase was incredible. Wuya fell backwards onto the sand and lay there, breathless

"Do you surrender?" Chase asked her coldly, not even doing her the courtesy of looking at her. Chase glanced towards the tiny girl in the stands, watching them both. Wuya bared her teeth,

"It should have been me!" Wuya gasped.

The magic of the showdown vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Kimiko blinked at she was back in Chase's home, leaning on the arm of Chase's throne. Chase was sat in his throne, with the back of Shen Gong Wu at his feet.

"At least she will keep her word." Chase smirked, looking at the door on the opposite side of the room.

Kimiko only managed to see her foot and see a flash of black disappear behind a closing door. She thought she heard a sob echoing through Chase's home. Kimiko couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"Master Fung, are you feeling better now?" Omi asked the old monk, who was looking much better already. He had changed his robes and washed the soot off his face. He looked almost normal again.

"Yes, thank you, Omi."

The monks were back in the shelter of their cave again, with a small fire to cook their dinner on, which was only a small portion of rice each, since most of the food they had stored when they had first arrived at the cave, Clay and Raimundo had snacked on greedily. Clay was sitting in the corner of the cave, leaning against the back wall, carving some sort of animal into a block of wood with his blade. Raimundo was positioned at the cave of the mouth. He had been watching the skies for the return of Dojo for an hour and he was starting to worry. Raimundo leaned against the side of the cave and sighed.

"Master Fung, however did you survive the fire? It was most hot and deadly." Omi watched Master Fung with clear fascination and it could not have been more obvious that Omi was in awe of him.

"Once I realised what Kimiko was about to do, I sealed myself and the other monks inside the vault. We travelled to the bottom of the stairs, where there is a secret exit for occasions such as this. We hid for a while, then we returned." Master Fung said simply.

"But what about the fire and the smoke?" Omi asked, leaning too close to the fire and suddenly feeling a great heat upon his nose. He snorted and pulled away, not taking his eyes off Master Fung.

"Fire rises, Omi. There was a small air shaft built in, which supplied us with clean air as we waited."

Raimundo couldn't help but feel that Master Fung's story was very boring and vague, but he didn't mind. He was busy concentrating on the skies.

"Why would Kimiko do such a thing, Master Fung?" Omi asked after a while.

"Because it was what she has been told to do." He replied simply, watching the fire cackle.

"You mean, she's obeying Chase?" Raimundo snapped his head up at Master Fung.

"Did you expect her to do any different in her position? She is loyal to him now, young monk. You must remember that she is obligated to follow his orders." Master Fung turned his gaze to Raimundo.

"Yeah. That, and the fact that Chase'll prob'ly hurt her if she even tries disobeyin' him." Clay piped up from the corner, checking his wooden sculpture.

"I'm not so sure anymore." Raimundo said, "I mean, she would have tried to apologise to us or something." He stopped for a moment and swallowed noisily. "She's not Kimiko anymore. She's been brainwashed. I want to help her guys, but I don't think we can after this." Raimundo stared into his lap as he spoke, not meeting any of their eyes.

"Be cautious, young monks. Kimiko is not acting of her own accord." Master Fung warned.

"She seemed pretty happy to burn the Temple to me." Raimundo mumbled and glanced at Omi and Clay, who nodded in agreement.

Each of the Xiaolin Dragons knew exactly what the other two were thinking. They were all thinking the same thing.

We're going to have to kill her.

"Goodnight Kimiko." Chase bowed to her as he continued down the corridor to what Kimiko assumed what his bedroom. She nodded politely back and opened the door to her own bedroom. She had planned to lie on her bed for a little while and attempt to get some sleep, but to her surprise, there was someone on it already.

The figure flew at Kimiko before she had time to react.

Its' long fingers curled around her neck, wrapping themselves uncomfortably tight. Kimiko gasped in shock and tried to pull their hands away from her neck. She coughed as the fingers squeezed too tightly on her neck, restricting her breathing. She gasped for breath.

"Wuya!" She spluttered, still trying to prize her fingers away from her neck. Kimiko was just about to summon her element when Wuya flung her head towards the corner of the bed, still squeezing her neck. Kimiko's head collided painfully with the corner. Wuya's hands knotted into her hair and she growled mercilessly as she slammed Kimiko's face into the bedpost again. Kimiko cried out; her head felt like it was going to explode from the sheer pain. Something wet began to trickle down from her eyebrow, which was throbbing painfully where she had hit the bedpost the second time. Kimiko's chest ached for some oxygen, but the grip on her throat was too tight.

The room blurred and Kimiko strength vanished almost instantly. She stopped trying to pull Wuya off her and attempted to use her element, but she was too weak and the fire that was usually bubbling close to her surface seemed to have vanished along with her strength. Kimiko's arms dropped helplessly to her side and her legs collapsed under her. Her lungs were screaming for help or air.

"You deserve this, you thieving little bitch." Wuya snarled in her ear, "You stole what was mine. Together, Chase and me could have turned this pathetic excuse of a world into something beautiful. I never understood why he wanted you, but I'm pretty sure with you out of the picture, things will be a lot different around here." Wuya kept whispering into Kimiko's ear, but she didn't catch any of it. The room blurred and faded into darkness.

As Kimiko's mind slowed down, she couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness. She'd finally been released. She was free once again.