"DOJO! DOJO!" screamed the voice above him.

Dojo shook the vapors out of his head and sat up. His vision was blurry, and he could hardly think straight due to the blinding ache that was pounding within his skull.

"DOJO!"

"What is it?" He finally snapped back, staring blearily at his surroundings. Kimiko and Clay were standing over him, their faces pale well, in Kimiko's case, pale-r and their expressions frantic. "What's happening?"

Kimiko could only speak in short fragments. "Chase Young. There. Winning! World ending! Do something... now!" She pointed at the towering Stairway to Heaven, which was still glowing and extant above them all. Dojo peered up at the Stairway and could see the tiny leaping figure that was Chase Young making his grim way to the top. And once he did, the world would fall before his terrible power.

Dojo didn't say anything. He sprang upwards like a shot, taking flight at a speed that he had never reached before. The Stairway, which once impeded him, could not hold him back any longer. The cheerful announcer's voice boomed around him as he approached Chase Young.

"Ah, my green friend. You have come back to me again." Chase remarked languidly as he leapt to the second-to-last stair. "Ready for another taste of my power?"

"No, thank you!" Dojo grunted. "I've already eaten."

He set his sights on the Terrarcanum, just a few feet away.

The dragon stretched its muscles and accelerated even more. Ten feet... five feet... three feet... he was just upon it now... and...

It was gone.

Dojo blinked as he crashed onto the suddenly empty platform. Hey, what gives? He thought, looking around.

"I believe I've won." Chase Young said. Dojo could feel the man's breath on his ear. He turned his neck around just in time to see Chase, with both Shen Gong Wu in his hand, descending towards the torn, waterlogged island floor below.

"No!" Dojo screamed. The dragon followed Chase in his swan dive, but even as they fell he knew it was too late. The Stairway to Heaven was already crumbling around them, and soon Chase Young would hold the power of two Arcana in his evil hands.

Dojo landed, seconds after Chase Young. Kimiko and Clay crowded around him. They were both soaking wet, and exhausted besides, but were still more concerned for his health than their own.

"Are you okay?" Kimiko demanded.

"What happened?" Clay asked.

Dojo coughed. "He got it. He won."

"You're... are you serious?" Clay said.

"Yes, I'm serious!" Dojo gasped. "And we've got to get out of here before--,"

"Before what?" Chase Young said. Clay, Dojo, and Kimiko turned to face him. Chase was wearing the Lunarcanum and the Terrarcanum as a pair of pendants around his neck. The two Shen Gong Wu were pulsing with bright energy, the same kind that was already illuminating Chase Young from head to toe.

With a gesture, Chase fossilized Kimiko and Clay's feet to the ground and bound Dojo with a set of stone manacles. Then, he raised his arms above his head and used the power of the Terrarcanum to send tremors tearing across the landscape. The fissures shook the island apart and lifted it out of the ocean, creating a vast, sprawling barge to carry Chase and his captives away.

"Yeah... uh... this whole 'me-fighting-in-a-showdown' thing really isn't working out too well for Team Good, is it?" Dojo asked.

No one answered him.

Lightning flashed over the Xiaolin Temple as Chase Young's forces advanced upon the two cornered monks. Raimundo and Omi had managed to hold off the siege as best they could. But as they fought, they could feel their energy ebbing away. Their adrenaline rush was wearing off and now they were struggling to even stand up.

"I think this is the end, buddy." Raimundo said as he and Omi backed away from an advancing horde of wildcats and spear-warriors. "At least we'll get to go down fighting. Custer's last stand and all that."

"Do not speak like that, Raimundo!" Omi admonished. "We are not custard; we are Xiaolin warriors, and we will prevail!"

Raimundo nodded. Whatever you say, little man. He took another step back and bumped into a stone wall. End of the line. Nothing to do now but fight, and hope to hold on long enough for some miracle to occur.

The lead cat, an enormous hulking tiger, lunged forward, its striped fur rippling in the wind.

"Wudai Neptune -- Water!" Omi shouted. He jabbed one finger sharply towards his opponent and stared forlornly at it as a gentle trickle of water spurted from his fingertip, pooling at his feet.

Raimundo was a little faster on the uptake and shoved the tiger backwards, using a burst of wind energy to send it crashing to the floor in the midst of its feline companions. Omi mouthed a word of thanks but Raimundo was no longer listening.

"I--I don't think we're going to win this time." Raimundo said. He sounded as if he could hardly believe it himself. "They've got us outnumbered and outclassed."

"Perhaps you have spoken too soon!" Omi cried.

Raimundo shook his head at Omi's insuperable optimism. It seemed as if no matter what happened, he always saw a glimmer of hope, no matter how impossible or ridiculous it was. "What are you talking about?"

Omi grabbed his head and twisted it roughly towards the advancing wildcat horde.

At least, the formerly advancing wildcat horde. For, as if by some miracle, the cats, including the tiger that Raimundo had just knocked back, were growling petulantly and retreating. They kept walking backwards until the monks could only see the whites of their eye, then turned and loped away into the darkness.

Raimundo could hardly believe his eyes.

"I said we shall prevail!" Omi said.

"You did say that!" Raimundo replied, his voice a whisper.

"And see what happened? We did prevail!" Omi said.

"That we did..." Raimundo said.

The Xiaolin monks' victory was short-lived, however, as the roof began to shake. Raimundo and Omi dodged out of the way of falling ceiling and watched in shock as the roof of the temple was blasted to dust, leaving them to be pounded by the rain and sleet that was falling from the skies.

"Don't be too sure of your victory yet, young dragons!" said Chase Young. Raimundo and Omi looked up to see the Heylin warrior himself crouching atop a chunk of floating earth. Beside him, hovering just above his head, was Kimiko, Clay, Dojo, Jack Spicer, and a large, sleeping black dragon, all trapped inside cages made of rock.

"This day just keeps getting better and better." Chase Young said. He raised his hands, calling up a pair of stone claws that flew forward and grabbed Raimundo and Omi. "Four trapped Xiaolin monks, two dragons to serve me, and the power to conquer the world. Really, what more can I ask for?"

Meanwhile, deep within the mists of the Dream World, ancient evils far beyond mortal reckoning stirred.

'The Arcana... its power has been invoked.' whispered a voice. It echoed throughout the dark world, pulsating with uncanny powre.

'This is our chance to strike.' added another.

'Through them, we shall be free.' said yet a third.

'Victory is within our grasps.' said the fourth.

And they slithered forward, blind in the darkness and seeking the two points of light that shimmered far off in another realm.