Disclaimer: Xiaolin Showdown © Christy Hui

Author's Notes: So, finally, after sitting in my freezing ass car for two hours every day for the past week between classes, I've finished chapter 4. Yeah it is a bit on the long side, but have you ever read Vargas? Those chapters are anywhere between 11 – 32 pages. An extended set of notes are at the end of the chapter in case any of you have doubts or questions.

Hugh Laurie is GOD.

-X-

I woke up to the same pale wash of light coming in through the window that had been there for the last couple of months. It was July now, which meant we were half way through the rainy season here in China. Every morning it was either dark and pouring outside, or it was a day like this when the sunlight managed to light the clouds enough into a rolling grey. Monsoons were a threat in this area. The land surrounding us would flood with at least three feet of water, sometimes as much as ten. Luckily the Spicer manor was built atop a plateau surrounded by forests so the house never suffered any water damage. It was the one intelligent thing Jack says his father ever did, not… y'know… founding a multi-million dollar corporation. That wasn't smart at all.

I turned over to see Jack sleeping peacefully next to me. When I saw him, a tingle ran down my neck and through my shoulders. I felt really happy to see him. I felt that way every morning. Jack just brought this emotion out in me, an emotion you can't really put a name to. It was like… the loudest part of your favorite song, or when the hero in your favorite movie walks out of the burning car crash. It was like a lot of things, all rolled into one amazing moment.

That was the way Jack made me feel.

While tossing around in his sleep, as he sometimes did, some of the buttons on Jack's tailored pajamas had opened. A soft rush went up my arm and into my chest. I let my fingertips roll deftly over his exposed belly. God it felt good.

Normally Jack didn't like to be touched. In fact, the only time I ever put my hands on the man was when he put his on me first. Jack didn't let anybody touch him when we were young either. I suppose the fact that the only contact he received from anybody was the abusive kind had something to do with it. But now that we were together, the last thing I wanted to do was hurt the guy. Maybe get rough, but nothing with the intent of causing pain. But that disorder had already settled in.

I found a soft spot. Really soft. My thumb stroked the spot, soft at first, but then with a little more pressure. I had hoped on so many occasions before that I could touch Jack whenever the urge came around, but when I did he would flinch and pull away. I was never the first to twine our hands together. I was never the first to embrace a hug. I was never the first to give a kiss. I was never the first to start a session of intimate touches. I was never the first to fuck.

I prayed to God that Jack wouldn't wake up as I shifted downward and rested my face on him. White chocolate. Jack was like white chocolate. Vanilla was too plain a flavor to describe Jack. He was something special. In Brazil everyone was copper or a deep brown. I'd never seen someone like him before. To be honest, I was caught off guard the first time I saw him. Standing in that dirty San Francisco alley, I was almost sure he wasn't real, not with that red hair and white skin. A few months later Kimiko's father sent her a box of white chocolates for her birthday. She gave one to me and I immediately thought of Jack.

He smelled like motor oil and German cologne. Delicately I kissed his skin. Somehow it felt different when he didn't know. Not to say it was any less enjoyable when he allowed it, but being this way on my terms was something special. Maybe it was the natural need for male dominancy. Jack began to stir, so I pulled away. I was never sure what would happen if he woke up to me that close, and quite frankly I preferred to avoid Jack's meltdowns as much as possible.

I shifted out of bed as quietly as possible. As I walked down the hall my heels were suddenly pounced on by a tiny ball of fur. I looked down to see the kitten stumbling and rolling around my feet. I'd brought her home a few weeks ago as a gift for Jack. He promptly named her Sofia. She was a wily little thing with patches of orange and black fur. She had one spot of white on her chest which looked as if she'd spilt milk down the front of her self. Jack plays with her all the time, giving me more time to myself. The calico managed to follow me a quarter of the way up another flight of stairs, but she quickly tired and tumbled back down into the hall. I crept up the staircase to the third floor. Most of the rooms were used for storage. Family heirlooms Jack didn't like, decommissioned robot parts, furniture that needed repair, and other things like that. I entered one particularly dusty room where I proceeded to pull the sheet of an old standing mirror. It was a full-body vanity mirror framed with braided bronze and displayed scarlet flowers in scattered places. Of course, to be more specific, it was one of the last remaining Shen Gong Wu.

Wuya's Looking Glass.

When standing in front of it, the mirror would let you see whatever you were thinking of. I've been sneaking up here the past few weeks. I remembered we had the wu one night before falling asleep. I sat back on the floor, and looked into the mirror. The image was hazy at first, but soon I could see Clay carrying a huge piece of wall on each arm. I was baffled by his strength. The earth had blessed him with an amazing gift. He set the first one down causing the surrounding ground to rumble and did the same with the second. I watched him walk back uphill, no doubt fetching more pieces to repair the gate. The image became hazy again and I saw Kimiko. She was sitting with a group of women, all of them sewing something or other. Her slender fingers worked quickly with the tiny needle and blue thread. Not surprisingly she was sewing infant clothing. I saw her laugh and I smiled. Again the mirror hazed over, and Omi came into view. The smile fell from my face and became somber. The monk was inside the temple, kneeling in a dark room with a collection of older gentlemen. He lit a wick of incense and began leading them in prayer and meditation. I watched in silence, and without realizing it, I assumed the position Master Feng taught me six years ago.

I'm not sure how long I meditated for. Time is lost on you when meditating. Suddenly, the silence was broken.

"Rai!" Jack's voice penetrated every room in the house. I didn't respond right away. I actually hoped he would stop looking for me so that I could continue meditating. I was never as lucky as that. "Rai," he whined loudly, "Where are you?"

I clenched my jaw. "I'm coming Jack!" When I opened my eyes, the image was gone. I sighed wearily. I returned the sheet to its place over the looking glass and made my way downstairs. Jack was in the kitchen when I found him. "Bom dia," I greeted.

"Morning," he greeted in return. Jack had already changed into his clothes. He glared at me from the corner of his eye as he filled the coffee pot with water.

I frowned. "What?"

"You couldn't have turned the coffee maker on?"

"Sorry." I looked down at the floor. "I was… busy."

"Playing with Wuya's Looking Glass, I know."

My eyes flashed back up at him. "You know? How?"

"Please Rai, I'm not stupid." He put the coffee pot on the hot plate. "I knew all long. You creep out of bed every morning and go up there." Jack smirked. "You really should make better use of your wind power, creaking floor boards are a dead give away."

I laughed. "Guess you're right. So, you're okay with it then?"

"Well, of course Rai. You say it like I'm some kind of warden. If it makes you happy then go ahead."

My expression softened. "Thanks, amado." He made a gesture of acknowledgment. I watched him. I had that urge again. A simple kiss, that was all I wanted, just to say good morning. I knew what would happen though. Jack would side step me at the last second and detour to the fruit bowl or something.

His red eyes glanced in my direction. "Oh, Rai…" As he spoke, his lips curled into a smile. "You look so lonely over there." Some of the words were drawn out. His arms came up, the sleeves of his jacket hanging past his hands. "Come here."

I did. The sleeves brushed over my shoulders and his arms wrapped around my neck. Butterfly kisses. Those were my favorite. First on one cheek, next the other. Then on the tip of my nose. Again on my lips, a few on the lips, light and feathery.

"Better?"

I nodded.

Jack pulled away and immediately his hands flew back in excitement. "Sofia, there you are!" He swooped down and lifted the kitten off the floor. "Hello my precious," he cooed the feline. He cuddled his face against the kitten's. "Are you hungry? Huh? Are you hungry?"

It was another minute before I had the guts to actually speak. My knuckles whitened and I swallowed. "Jack, I'm going to the temple today."

There was a loud clatter from inside the pantry. "You're what?!" his voice shrieked.

Sofia bolted from the pantry and scrambled like a shot across the kitchen floor.

"I'm going to the temple today," I said again more firmly.

Jack flew from the food closet. "You can't!"

"Jack, don't be so unreasonable!" I ran my hand through my hair. "Christ, I mean… I haven't gone anywhere since the last time! Once to buy you that kitten, but that was it! I've done everything you wanted for two months!" I began counting off on my fingers. "I've played basketball with you. I've watched movies with you. We've played video games for so many hours we finished Silent Hill, twice, we finished all the Metal Gear Solids, the first on at least three times, we beat all the Devil May Cry including that rare fourth edition from before Armageddon hit, Resident Evil, and I don't know how many more times I can stand watching Rayman wail on a bunch of crazed albino bunnies. All I'm asking for is one afternoon, Jack. You can go work on your machines. You won't even know I'm gone."

"That is not the point!" he barked. "I don't want you to go!"

I crossed my arm over my chest. "You're gonna have to do better than that, Jack."

"Rai… Rai please…" He started to crumble. I wasn't letting him have control. "Don't go. The weather… I have a bad feeling about the weather. I'll let you go tomorrow, I promise."

"Like I haven't heard that before."

"Raimundo, I'm begging you." His coat flew out behind him when he rushed over to me. "Please, don't go. If you leave… something bad will happen. I know it will. Raimundo please…" His right arm draped over my shoulder and the left grabbed my waist. I could feel him hanging on me.

"Jack, stop it. You're embarrassing yourself, man."

"I don't care!" he cried. Wetness started to build up in his red eyes. "You can't go! You just can't! Don't leave me here all alone Raimundo!"

I felt disgust build up in me. It was the same way I felt when we were young and Jack would come to the temple, begging us to hang out with him. I didn't like feeling that way about Jack, but sometimes, he just brought it on himself. My brow furrowed and I pushed him away.

"Save it Jack, I'm leaving. I'll see you later."

I left the room.

"Raimundo, no!"

I walked down the hall. I didn't turn and I didn't look back.

"Don't leave me all alone, Raimundo! Don't leave me all alone!"

I closed the door behind me, silencing his desperate cries.

Luckily it wasn't raining yet. By manipulating the updrafts and front winds I was able to soar swiftly through the air. I couldn't really fly, as Jack sometimes liked to speculate. My ability to stay airborne wasn't of my own device. I needed the wind. I needed air. During the drought season I can't even get myself five feet off the ground. Soon the temple was in my sights. I started to bring myself into a smooth landing, but the wind decided to turn. An unexpected gale force wind blew above me, stealing the draft from underneath me. Before I could asses the situation, my body dropped like a lead weight to the earth below. At the last second I managed to pull a wind down from a nearby hill, so I only skidded across the ground instead of cratering into it.

I laid there for a minute, waiting for the numb to leave and the pain to kick in. I heard the subtle shifting of rocks and dust from in front of me, and then a deep comical voice spoke.

"Nice moves, Grace."

I groaned.

"You'll forgive an old dragon for being smart," he chuckled. "Now, need some help stranger?"

Dragon? Dojo! What did he mean by stranger? "Gecko dude, since when are we strangers?" I stiffly lifted myself from the rut my landing made.

"Well, I can't say that I know you," he said stroking his red beard.

"Don't- Don't know me?" I laughed, half confused, half hurt. "Dojo, dude, it's me," I put my hands on my chest, "Raimundo."

His face fell. "Raimundo? You mean lazy, cocky Raimundo Pedrosa, Dragon of the Wind?"

I smirked. "The one and only."

"Great Dashi!" he exclaimed. "I should have known it was you." He pointed a nagging claw at me. "Only you would have the nerve to call me a gecko." We both laughed a bit and then he grew quiet. "C'mon kid, let me get a look at you."

When he slithered up to me I reached down and picked the little dragon up in my hand. Dojo's tail coiled around my wrist as I lifted him off the ground. Once he was close enough, his slender tongue slithered out and flicked over my features. "You've aged," he said finally.

I frowned. "Dojo, what's up? Why are you -"

"Dojo's blind now, Raimundo."

I looked up at Kimiko walking towards us, but my attention was immediately brought back to Dojo. "Blind?" I studied his eyes. Why hadn't I noticed before? Dojo's eyes looked like orbs of gutter water, grey and dirty blue. "Dojo… I- I'm sorry I didn't… How?"

He just shrugged and smiled. "A lot of the sight-type Shen Gong Wu were broken," he explained. "I'm not the guardian of those old relics for nothing you know. I have a connection with them." He patted my palm with his little claws. "Don't let it get to you, kid. It's not so bad. I get to be carried everywhere now." He finished with a deep chuckle.

"Yeah, but the destroyed Shen Gong Wu didn't affect your 'talent' for making clever remarks," Kimiko said with a smirk.

"Nope, that's all Dojo," he said with playful pride.

We all had a good chuckle.

"I'm glad to see you came back Raimundo." I stood to meet Kimiko. She smiled at me and I smiled back. She was at least five months pregnant, and showing. "We thought maybe you weren't coming back."

"You couldn't keep me away," I said with one of my trademark grins.

"Come on," she took my hand, "Clay will want to see you." We walked around to the front of the temple where Clay was still building the wall. "Clay! Raimundo's back!"

"Be there in a second!" he called back as he set the wall in place.

"I'll go make us some tea." Kimiko gave my hand a gentle squeeze and walked back to the temple.

Clay approached me, wiping his hands on his pants. "Howdy, Raimundo."

"Howdy," I snickered.

"Hey, c'mon now Raimundo, you ain't still makin' fun of my accent are ya?"

"Clay man, I'm sorry, I can't help it." I continued to laugh and wiped a tear from the corner of my eye. "I've never heard anybody talk like you before."

He lifted up the brim of his hat. "I still have a hard time believin' you h'ain't never heard a person talk like me before you came to the temple."

"Dude, don't you get it?" My tone lost its humor. "You are the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life!"

Clay put his hands on his hips. "Come again partner?"

I stepped closer to him. "Listen, when I was little, my grandma would tell me stories. She fed me these fairytales about spirits and gods, creatures that were more pure and glorious than any of us could ever hope to be. These gods, she said, had hair like the sun, eyes like the vast blue ocean, and skin like the moon. Growing up, it was all I could do to dream about the beautiful spirits." I smiled when I saw the intrigue on Clay's face. "Then, one day, my father sent me to a land all the way on the other side of the world. A land filled emperors, magic, and dragons. And in this land, I met you. I met a giant of a man with gold hair, blue eyes, and white skin."

A slight blush crept onto Clay's face. "You thought I was a god?"

I slipped my hands into my pockets and shrugged. "Yeah."

"Hadn't you seen Americans before? You must have had tourists or… or something."

"No way, man, not where I lived. Tourists wouldn't dare set foot in the favelas, they're like… the ghetto. If you looked anything remotely like a tourist you'd be robbed and killed on the spot. Papai was pretty upset about the whole thing. He thought Americans would bring in good money to the family circus, but there were more people who'd rather take the money than perform for it."

"Wow," he nervously rubbed the back of his neck, "I've never been called a god before."

"Yeah, but don't let it go to your head." I laughed a little. "You weren't up on that pedestal for very long. Why do you think I was always screwin' with you? I wanted to see if my grandma's stories were true."

"Wait, hold up there. You stole my hat, put foreign substances in my hat, put make-up on me, and constantly mocked me because you thought I was a god? Shouldn't it have been the opposite?"

My laughter grew. "No point man, I found out pretty fast you weren't really a deus. You got too upset too easily. Deuses are supposed to be patient with humans. Same thing with Kimiko."

"Naw, she's no god, just an angel."

I slapped my hand over my eyes and groaned. "Dude, that has got to be the corniest thing I've ever heard you say, and you say a lot of corny stuff."

"Don't waste your breath partner. If love makes me a fool, well then shucks, put a dunce cap on me and stick me in the corner."

I sighed trying to push the phrase out of my head. "Yeah, can't believe I've actually missed that. So, Clay…" I shifted on my feet. "About you and Kimiko, how? I mean, how did you know? I never would have really guessed you liked her."

"Well, I didn't at first." He gestured with his large calloused hands. "Naw, that's not entirely true either. I reckon I fancied her a little. Women in Texas ain't what you call 'delicate.' I'd not quite seen a girl so small and fine lookin' as her before. I always thought she was right p'rtty, 'specially when she got all fired up the way she did. Kimiko had all the kick of a Texan woman wrapped up in one dainty package." He tittered with a hiss through his teeth. "But that was it."

What he had just described sounded like a crush to me, but Clay had never been in love before. I figured a simple man like himself didn't know the difference, especially when he was only sixteen years old. "So," I urged him on. "When did you realize you'd fallen head over heels for her?"

Clay removed his hat and scratched his forehead. "I s'ppose it was a year or so after we met. I started… that is, she…" He put his hat on and pulled the brim down over his eyes trying to hide the blush on his face.

"Yeah?"

"She made my pants feel real tight," he said with a deep chuckle.

"Oh my God!" I burst into loud hysterical laughter. "Clay, dude, I cannot be-lieve you just said that!" I clutched my aching sides, unable to stop laughing. "You can't be serious. How the hell did you keep something like that so well hidden?"

"Dag nabbit Raimundo." Clay himself was unable to keep from laughing. It was a deep bellowing kind of laughter that came from way down in his chest. "Why d'you suppose I was always playin' with them toys o' mine? Or lassoin' with ma rope, or why I was so insistent on trainin'?"

"I dunno, man. You were a cowboy. I just figured you liked that kind of stuff."

"Not enough to be doin' it twenty four-seven. I had to keep my mind off all them hormones stampeding inside me."

"Y'know…" I raised an eyebrow at him. "There are ways of taking care of those kinds of… problems."

"I'm from Texas, Rai. Do you know what's in Texas? Baptists and Catholics, and a big heapin' of 'em too. I come from a family of both. I'd sooner be whipped on my bare backside before even thinkin' about touchin' myself. I got a granddaddy on one side who's a Baptist pastor and I got a granny on the other side who's the wildest Irish Catholic woman you ever met."

"Is that the one you were afraid of?"

"No, that'd be the pastor's wife. She was an orn'ry old biddy with a hump back, and she'd spit whenever she spoke with ya'. Her hands were like wrinkled cowhide covered in liver spots, and she'd get her chipped claw-like nails into yer cheeks and give 'em a good shake." He shuddered at the memory. "Not to mention our 'rooms' were only separated by them hangin' sheets. I'd make more noise than a rooster calling up the mornin' sun during said act of self-gratification."

I nodded slightly. "I guess you're right about that."

"What about you Rai? How did you and Jack Spicer happen? I thought you liked girls."

I knew Clay wasn't passing judgment on my newly revealed homosexuality. He was the last person who would do that. What he didn't approve of, was Jack. "I thought I did too. When you get right down to it though, you never know who you're going to fall in love with. You know?" With my hands in my pockets I tilted my head back up to the sky. The light drizzle was turning into a steady rain fall. "I guess I didn't know I liked guys because I hadn't met the right one. To be honest, I still really dig girls, but I love Jack. I suppose Wuya and Dashi have something to do with it."

Clay made a small noise that indicated his agreement.

"I didn't go to him right off the bat. After leaving the temple I was alone for almost a year. I guess I went a little crazy. I panicked Clay, I straight up panicked. A whole shit load of responsibility was suddenly dropped on top of me, and I didn't think I could handle it. I was a shitty Shoku."

"Rai…"

"I was so excited when I was chosen. Being Shoku was proof that I was strong enough, and smart enough, to be somebody important. You never get that feeling back home. You're born in the favelas, grow up a half decent life in the favelas, and you die and get buried two feet underground in the favelas. Even though I was the leader, I still had Master Feng to help me. I was only sixteen when I was chosen; I didn't have all the answers. I'll admit it was kind of weird being looked up to by someone two years older than me." I glanced at Clay and he gave me a reassuring smile.

"Beating Jack, Hannibal, and Chase, and getting all those Shen Gong Wu, it felt great. But then, all of the sudden, it wasn't so great anymore. The temple was attacked and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Master Feng died because I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't ready for him to leave yet!" I rubbed away the building wetness in my eyes. "I fucked up royally, and I didn't know how to fix it. So I ran away. The one thing I was afraid of, not being able to protect you guys, happened. I figured you guys didn't need a failed Shoku… so I left."

"Dog-gonnit Raimundo, have a little more faith in us, partner. Have a little more faith in yourself. Did we ever do or say anything that made you think we didn't want you around?" He didn't give me a chance to answer before continuing. "We're a team, Raimundo, which means we work together. Just because you were Shoku didn't mean you couldn't ask us for help. None of us expected you to save the world all by yourself."

"Yeah…" I said wearily.

"Why don't you boys come in out of the rain?" Kimiko called from under the temple awning.

"Be there in just a sec Kimi!" Clay stepped right up to me. "It's real good to see you again Raimundo." He put a massive hand on my shoulder and pulled me into a one-armed bear hug. "You know you always got home here."

"Thanks, irmão mais velho."

We ran through the rain up to the temple. Kimiko gave us towels to dry off with and then we all sat around a small table for tea. A hand radio crackled on the edge of the table. She gracefully poured the warm bronze liquid into little wooden cups. I remembered the enormous tea pot Master Feng had her train with. I drank the tea slowly, let it warm by body. Clay wrapped his arm around Kimiko's waist and his hand rested on her rounded belly. She giggled and he gave her a kiss. I smiled.

Watching them stirred up some guilt in me. It didn't seem like they argued even half as much as Jack and I did. They probably didn't. But Kimiko wasn't difficult like Jack was. Then again, I loved Jack just as much as Clay loved Kimiko. I'd completely blown him off this morning. He was genuinely upset, and I didn't care. God, I'm such a dick.

"Jack…"

My friends gave me a concerned glance, hearing the wariness in my voice. "So, Raimundo…" Kimiko said slowly but cheerfully. "I've been meaning to ask you. Where have you been?"

"I was hiding out in a collapsed village. I lived off all the food and drink that had been left behind. When the food ran out, my mind did too." The two seemed disturbed by my bluntness, but I wasn't thinking much about what I was saying. "I don't deal well with trauma, not in my nature y'know? There was nothing to do, I had nowhere to go. I turned self-abusive." I ran my fingers over my body. I touched the fading scars, distant memories of the disfiguring marks I unconsciously afflicted on myself when I'd lost all sense of my humanity.

"Oh, Rai… nobody deserves that…" Kimiko cried softly.

"That was what Jack said when he found me. He picked me up and took me home. Jack… he nursed me back. He was there with me all the time, not once leaving my side. There was one point when I asked him why. He said he didn't know. I watched Jack grow up. I watched him change. He befriended me. A couple years later… we fell in love. We didn't profess our feelings to each other. It was something we both knew, and that was enough."

Kimiko just smiled acceptingly. Clay, on the other hand, wasn't so approving. "But, why Jack?"

Jack was never Clay's favorite person. In fact, of all our foes, he hated Jack the most. It was understandable really. Jack was everything Clay was raised not to be. He wasn't polite, he wasn't a gentleman, and he was in no way a decent human being. To be evil by choice didn't slide with Clay. I sipped my tea quietly for a short time before speaking.

"It's been a long time, Clay. Who we are… what we are has changed. There is no Xiaolin or Heylin anymore. We are a bitter Chinese adolescent, mothering oddly blue eyed Japanese girl, a Texan behemoth with a heart to match, a depression suppressing Brazilian bohemian, a manipulative multi-phobic former evil boy genius, and we're living on a very broken planet." I took another sip. "And that's all."

Clay was about to comment but Kimiko stopped him. She placed her slender hand on top of his and shook her head. Clay sighed, but held his tongue.

Suddenly there was a loud crack and the little radio went silent. "Oh dear," Kimiko said.

"What? What does that mean?" I asked.

"Well whenever the radio dies it means the power has gone out in the cities. We use it to keep track of things. Just trying to be good guardians and all."

The cup slipped through my fingers, tea spilling all over the tile floor. "How far does the frequency reach?"

"I don't know," Kimiko answered distractedly as she bent down and started to clean the spill. "I guess from as far as Hong Kong to Guangzhou."

"Shit… I gotta go!" I bolted from the table and ran out into the pouring rain. Water fell in heavy sheets from the sky making it almost impossible to see even three feet in front of you. I heard Clay's booming voice call after me.

"Raimundo! What in tar-nation, are you crazy!?"

"Jack needs me! I have to go!"

Kimiko's red clad figure appeared next to his shadowed one. "Just be careful!" she called.

"I will-love you guys-bye!" I blurted all at once as I took off into the raging storm.

By instinct alone I made it back to the Spicer Mansion. I fell out of the sky in a tumbling heap but was right back on my feet and running towards the house. Even before I reached the front door, through the roar of the rain and thunder, I could hear him. Jack's petrified shrieks resonate beyond the walls of our home and into the air.

I burst in through the door. "Jack!"

His terror-stricken screams echo off every wall in the house making it impossible to find him.

"Jack!" I run as fast as my legs can carry me throughout the pitch black house. I race through corridors, parlors, the library, the kitchen, sitting rooms, social rooms. "Damn it Jack, where are you?!" The reply is the same: cries of pure terror. As I ran up the stairs I almost felt like crying. "For the love of Christ, Jack. Just fucking answer me!"

"Raimundo!"

I turned on my heels. Jack's sobs and shrieks grew louder. I found him. The pale figure was lying in the middle of the hall curled in the fetal position screaming, and crying, and screaming.

"Jack! Jack!" I collapsed beside him. "Amado, shh, it's okay! I'm here, I'm here now! Calm down!" I scooped him up in my arms and rocked him gently. "Siento muito Jack. Eu não quis dizer para isto acontecer. Não esteja espantado amado, estão seguro agora. É único a chuva que você sabe? O nada pode machucá-lo. Silencie agora amado. Eu o protegerei. Siento muito. Não chore Jack. Siento muito."

Jack didn't hear me. He was in a full blown panic. The darkness set free all the things he was afraid of, including the dark itself. They say that those who fear the dark know it best. Jack knew the dark and all its minions.

In the dark, Jack saw golden eyes, heard reptilian hisses and predatory growls from the far end of the hall, all the while creeping closer. Jack saw flaming green eyes and heard wicked cackles while sylphlike hands reached for him from the corner of the room. Jack could see shadows take form, malevolent and twisted, and they stalked him with insanity. Then there were the creatures you couldn't see. Ancient things that thrived even without our knowledge of their existence. Jack knew them though. He could feel them, hear them, smell them, and on more than one occasion had urinated himself due to their presence.

There was no point in telling my lover they were all in his head. Being figments of his imagination made them real enough for Jack and the darkness was just the catalyst needed to give them manufactured life.

I could do nothing but hold him. And cry with him.

-X-

Author's Notes: I know, I know, Devil May Cry 4 hasn't been released yet. Hence the 'rare' Rai has emphasized. Also, this story is set in the future.

- In Southern China (Guangzhou, Guilin, Xiamen, Kunming, Hong Kong) it is generally wetter and high temperatures are sustained longer. Winter, from January to March, is short but can feel very cold. April through September is the rainy season where temperatures and humidity reach highs. Monsoon season is from July through September.

- I've decided they live in southern China based on the appearance of the male characters. The stereotypical southern male: is shorter, has large, almond-shaped eyes with double eyelids, has a smooth, rouch face, eats rice-based food rather than wheat-based food, is clever, calculating, hardworking, and prone to "mincemeat" displays of emotion, such as brooding melancholy (i.e. Omi, Guan, Dashi, Chase)

- The Catholic Church was the established religion of Texas until late in the Mexican era, but then declined after the Texas Revolution and remained at a low ebb until sufficient Catholic immigrants arrived from Germany, Ireland, and elsewhere; the Catholic Church is now the largest religious body in Texas. Although Protestantism has dominated the religious life of Texas (66 percent) since the mid-1830s, Catholicism was first to penetrate the region. Up until 1830 Methodists were the most dominate over the Texan landscape. They were overtaken by the Baptists who dominated for a majority of the twentieth century until 1990 when the Catholics, in turn, overcame the Baptists. Currently, Catholics make up 32.8 percent of the church-going population, and Baptists make up 29.9 percent.