You Remind Me

Chapter Eight

By: Bellaluna

Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown or its characters. Please do not copy or steal this fanfiction.

Author's Notes: Wow, I feel like I'm one a role here. I've been writing these last couple of chapters during one of my more boring classes, so it gives me some interesting to do. And, wow, there's only going to be one more chapter after this one and then it's done! Crazy! Well, there might be an epilogue but that's about it. I hope you enjoy it all!

Chapter Eight

When Kimiko awoke hours later, she felt even more miserable than she had before. The late afternoon sun was shining into the room, right on to her face, causing it to feel warmer than was comfortable for her. She groaned and rolled on to her side so that the sunlight would hit her back instead. Clenching the sheet on top of her tightly she clamped her eyes shut in an attempt to will herself back to sleep, but to no avail. She desperately longed for that unattainable sleep, because in sleep she didn't have to think about what had transpired with Jack and the emptiness she now felt inside. After painfully realizing sleep was not going to happen, Kimiko sighed, opened her eyes and sat up.

As soon as she did, she wished she hadn't.

Sitting in a chair across the room was Raimundo.

With a sudden burst of energy Kimiko leapt out of the bed, tossing the sheets aside.

"You!" she cried angrily, marching right over to where he sat, silently watching her, and not moving an inch. When Raimundo didn't respond Kimiko sneered and raised her first, ready to attack.

"Going for the final blow then?" he finally spoke.

Kimiko stood frozen, her fist in mid-air. Upon hearing Raimundo's question she could only stare at his battered body. He had a swollen cheek and a black eye. He was covered from head to toe in bandages, covering up cuts and bruises scattered all over his body. Had she done that? At the time she hadn't thought she had done much. But then, what had she been thinking? Helping Jack and protecting what little bit of a world she had were the only things that he seemed important to her at the time.

Limply, Kimiko's hand fell back to her side. "I…what do you want?" she asked coldly and turned back around.

"Just making sure you're alright," Rai replied. "You did pass out on the front steps after all."

"I did?" she asked quietly, trying to remember.

Sara had taken her to the temple on Jack's order. For the first half of the journey all Kimiko had done was cry, but after some time she lapsed into a cold, almost coma like state. She wasn't asleep, and yet she wasn't awake either. When they had reached the temple Sara had taken Kimiko in her arms, hugging her reassuringly.

"Please don't give up Miss Kimiko," she had whispered. "Master Jack still needs you, even if he doesn't know it yet."

"Needs me? Ha," Kimiko muttered quietly to herself and went back to sit down on the bed. "I guess you were right," she said.

"Huh?" Raimundo asked, sounding rather confused.

"Jack. He never cared about me."

"Yeah well, don't feel too bad about it. He's not worth your time."

Kimiko stared down at the matted floor and felt her eyes begin to water. Silent tears fell to the floor, stinging her eyes and staining her cheeks.

"Could you leave please?" she asked hoarsely. "I'd just like to be alone for now."

Silently Raimundo nodded and reluctantly left the room, and Kimiko, alone.

---

"AGH!" Jack screamed angrily and tossed yet another crumpled up blueprint into a nearby trash barrel. By that point there were at least fifteen other failed plans lying abandoned in the trash. Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair, only to have it get caught on his goggles. With a loud grunt he pulled them off and slammed them on to the table.

"What the heck is wrong with me!?" he grumbled as he collapsed down against the table. All day he had been unsuccessful at creating any new plans or inventions and it was beginning to drive him insane, not to mention giving him a headache.

He honestly didn't understand the frustration that he had been feeling all day at all. He had thought that by letting Kimiko go back to the Xiaolin temple that everything would just go back to normal. After all, it's not she'd made that much of an impact in the past couple of months. However, it was now painfully obvious that the opposite was true. All day he had been jumping around from one thing to another, unable to concentrate on anything at all. With every new task he just got more and more frustrated.

He was at least thankful that Wuya had not bothered him since yesterday. Jack knew that in the mood he was in now there was no way he'd be able to handle her screechy nagging about how he had let go of a 'perfect opportunity.' Just as he gave a relieved sigh thanks to her absence, the ghostly figure of Wuya floated down into the lab.

"Jack!" she hisses, causing much twitching on the part of Jack.

"What!?" he snapped in reply.

"A new Shen Gong Wu has been activated."

"Fantastic," he grumbled as he got up from his slouching position. "Let's get going then."

---

Kimiko silently cursed her stomach. In the midst of her crying fit said stomach had growled angrily in protest of not being fed properly. She sighed and used the nearby sheet to scrub away the streaks of tears on her face. After a rather pathetic attempt to make herself look somewhat respectable, Kimiko left the room and quietly began to wander through the empty halls of the temple. Turning around a corner, Kimiko began to smell the wonderful scent of a well cooked meal. Smiling slightly she followed the scent until she was brought into a room, around the same size of the bedroom she had been in. There was a low, Japanese style table with an array of food spread on it. Sitting around the table on the floor were none other than Raimundo, Omi and Clay.

All three of the boys immediately stopped what they were doing and stared up at Kimiko. She of course, stared right back, suddenly feeling very awkward. She took a shaking step backwards, wanted to leave right away before anything more uncomfortable occurred.

"Now don't go there Kimiko!" Clay finally broke the silence with his cheerful call. "You just got here. Now why don't you sit down and have some grub?" he offered pleasantly as he patted the empty spot of floor next to him.

Numbly, Kimiko nodded and walked over to the spot, sitting down. Raimundo placed an extra plate in front of her with a pair of chopsticks. She mumbled a thank you to him and began to put food on her plate.

"What is down Kimiko?" Omi asked happily as she did so.

"Huh?" she asked, starring across the table at Omi with a confused look.

"He means 'what's up'," Rai explained.

Kimiko could help but smile and give a fleeting laugh to Omi's mistake. "I see," she said. "Not much really…just tired I suppose."

"But you have been sleeping for hours!" Omi pointed out. "How can you still be tired?"

Raimundo raised on of his battered arms and lightly smacked Omi on the back of his head, possibly hurting himself more than the monk in the process.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Omi cried, holding his head where Raimundo had hit him.

"Come on," Rai said with a sigh. He sat up, taking his now empty plate with him. "We've got chores to do."

"Ah yes," Omi said, leaping up on to his feet. "Let us go!"

"Right," Rai nodded. "We'll see you guys around." With a wave the two of them left the room, leaving Kimiko and Clay alone to finish eating their meal.

After sitting in the silence, eating for some time, Kimiko finally peered over at Clay. "Don't you have chores to do too?" she asked.

"Naw, I finished all my chores this mornin'," Clay replied with a smile. "Early bird gets the worm y'know."

"Oh."

Silence again.

"You…" Kimiko said in a whisper. "Why are you all being so nice to me?" she finally asked. The question itself had been boiling up within her since she first woke up. "For the past couple of months we've been enemies! I've done horrible things to you, fighting you…"

"Now you just stop right there," Clay said firmly, cutting Kimiko off. "Despite the fact that you've been used by that Spicer, you are still one of us," he explained. "That's never going to change."

While the mention of Jack left a stinging sensation in her chest, Kimiko couldn't help but feel an overwhelming gratefulness towards Clay and the others. She still didn't quite understand how they could be so forgiving of her, but she was just so glad to be accepted and wanted by them. Despite the uncomfortable circumstances, she was glad to have some place to belong.

"Thank you," she smiled slightly and went back to eating.

When they were both just about finished eating, the sound of hurried footsteps, thumping down the hallway came to their ears. The door slid open with a slam and Raimundo and Omi came barreling in.

"Clay!" Omi shouted. "Dojo has informed us of a newly activated Shen Gong Wu!"

"Well then let's get going then!" Clay said, grabbing his hat, putting it back on and standing up.

Instinctively Kimiko moved to get up, but then she stopped herself. She couldn't possibly go with them. She wouldn't know who to help or who to fight. Instead she remained seated, and waved sadly as the boys departed from the temple.

---

Kimiko rolled her sleeves back down and smiled looking at all of her hard work. It was certainly a job well done in her opinion. The hall floors were now sparkling clean, easily giving of her reflection as she looked down. She tossed the rag in her hand back into the bucket of soapy water and then picked the bucket up.

It had been almost three weeks since Kimiko had returned to the temple. Her memory however, had still not returned, but she was finally settling into her life at the temple along with all of its residents. She had yet to go back on to any missions for the Shen Gong Wu, but she still trained with the boys and did her own set of chores. Despite all hard work she loved every single minute of it.

Humming a tune Kimiko carried the bucket outside and dumped the water on to the dirt. Once again the boys were out with Dojo, gathering another Shen Gong Wu. She always felt terribly lonely and somewhat helpless when the left, but when they returned her joy was impossible to contain.

Just as Kimiko was about to turn back to go inside, she heard a familiar hiss. With wide eyes she moved to look off to her left. Sure enough, there hiding over near a group of bushes was Wuya. Kimiko gasped and backed up just a bit.

"Wuya!" she cried. "What are you doing here?"

"Jack sent me," Wuya replied, gliding closer to Kimiko.

"Jack did?" Kimiko gulped.

"Yes, he's ready to go through with the second half of his plan."

"Plan? What plan?"

"Ah, that's right. Jack did not explain his plan to you. He sent you here to gain the trust of the Xiaolin warriors."

"But…aren't I one of them?"

"Once my dear, once," Wuya said. "But that's changed now don't you think?" she asked as she hovered slyly around Kimiko a few times. "Don't you want to help Jack? Don't you care about him? Didn't he take care of you?"

"B-but, he doesn't want me, doesn't need me anymore," Kimiko weakly protested. "He said so himself. You know, when he kick me out and all," she said, stressing the part where he kicked her out.

"All part of the plan of course," Wuya easily replied. "He didn't mean to hurt you of course, but after all, he is just a dumb boy right?"

Kimiko hesitated to nod in agreement.

"So then you'll help? I'm sure Jack would be pleased."

"What do I do?"

---

Apparently she was to steal as many of the Shen Gong Wu as possible and take them back to Jack. A miserable not had begun to form in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to help Jack, repay him for all he'd done for her, but she knew that taking the Shen Gong Wu to wasn't right. Clay, Omi and Raimundo had forgiven her for everything, taken her in despite what she had done. Jack may have taken care of her, but he still kicked her out in the end. Even if it was part of some plan, it had still hurt. And besides that, having Wuya deliver the message of the plan was odd. Jack had always been the one to explain the plans to her. Wuya never had. As she descended the spiral staircase to where the Wu was stored Kimiko paused and turned to look at Wuya who floated next to her.

"Wuya…I don't think this is the best idea," she told her.

"Nonsense! We need the Shen Gong Wu do we not?"

"But…these are there. Jack can get them through the showdowns right?"

"Why bother with that, when they're all here, free for the taking!?" Wuya shouted, obviously losing her calm.

"I can't Wuya!" Kimiko shouted. "I'm not going to steal their Shen Gong Wu, not for you, not for Jack, not for anyone!"

Frustrated that her plan had failed Wuya let out a shrill, piercing scream, right at Kimiko's face. "You fool!" she cried.

Completely shocked by Wuya's outburst Kimiko yelped, jumping a bit in fright. However, as she jumped, she lost her footing on the steps, causing her to fall back, hitting her head hard against the step. The now blurry figure of Wuya angrily shot out of Kimiko's line of vision. Everything around her grew darker and darker until…nothing.