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3.
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Kimiko sprints along the corridor, every step like something in a dream after too much pizza. She's not really chasing a half-naked alternate version of herself through the temple. She's actually fast asleep in her bedroll, and when she wakes up she's going to have a mouth that tastes like a used litter box and foreswear all triple-cheese-and-barbeque-chicken for the rest of her days – or at least until the next time master Fung lets Clay make some.
She skids sideways around a corner, misjudges, ricochets off the wall and decides that she's not really in a dream after all. That smarts. "Come back!"
The other Kimiko doesn't listen. Instead, she darts through a doorway and out of sight. Kimiko grunts in irritation and follows, finding herself in an antechamber leading onto the courtyard. The other Kimiko is racing barefoot across the rough stones, giving no indication that they hurt her feet in the least. With all those injuries it's a wonder she's on her feet at all, let alone going full pelt like this. Gamely, Kimiko gives chase.
"You're gonna get pneumonia!" she yells. She might as well have kept silent, for all the good it does; but then, since when has she ever known the value of silence over unnecessary chatter? She's self-aware enough to know that she can talk both hind legs off the donkey, and then bore him into beating himself senseless with the soggy ends.
This other her may not know the value of silence either, but she doesn't seem as in love with her own voice. It felt momentous to watch her before, when she was peeling off the layers and reducing herself into the simple body they both shared – like with every bit of clothing she took off, she also took off part of what made them different. As if there could ever be any sort of deeper meaning to undressing like that? Yet when she was standing there in just her skivvies, Kimiko had felt a strange sort of connection with her.
It bothers her a little. This alternate Kimiko is so unfamiliar in some ways, yet so recognisable in others. The way she bites her lower lip when she's in pain; going to the dance with Hikaru; her breakneck but graceful gait – Kimiko can almost believe she's watching footage of herself in action. These are whole new levels of surreal that she never could've predicted when she sat down to sample some of Clay's celebrated Chocolate Mudslide.
If she's being honest, she'd like her doppelganger to go back to her own world. It's just too weird having her around – weird, and a little creepy. However, Kimiko's heart isn't made of stone. If this alternate world is as bad as she suspects it is, then she wouldn't make anyone go back there if they don't absolutely have to. Still, creepy, with a capital C and a big fat 'reepy'.
It will all hinge on what Master Fung says about the damage that could be done to this dimension if the other Clay and Kimiko are permitted to stay in it. Kimiko has learned enough over her time as a Xiaolin Dragon to know that, where magick's concerned, anything goes. None of them know what the risks of hopping between dimensions are, let alone the risks posed by staying in them.
Yet all these thoughts are put on hold for now, as she sprints across the courtyard and through a cloud of sweet-smelling incense. The corridor leading to Master Fung's quarters always smells of something other than sweaty socks, body spray and old cheese – the most common aromas of their personal areas.
By the time she reaches the other Kimiko, she's banging on the door with both fists and shouting for Master Fung to get his butt out here, quick sharp. She sounds panicky, and jitters backwards when the door opens and Master Fung is highlighted in the doorway by the soft flickery glow of several candles. Evidently he was meditating, as Dojo is nowhere to be seen and practically the only time he's banished (apart from when they're out hunting Wu) is when Master Fung needs complete quiet to concentrate. Kimiko can't blame him. Her brain feels like it needs clearing, too.
"Ah," he says upon seeing them, not reacting in the slightest to the whole lack-of-clothing issue. "Kimiko. And Kimiko. You wish to see me?"
"You bet I do!" the other Kimiko snaps. "You've got to move fast. There may still be time. I know things are different in your world, but if it's just been asleep longer or something then you're all finished if you don't act quickly - "
"Slow down, Kimiko." Master Fung raises his palms, voice soothing. He just has that kind of voice – that supportive, comforting tone that comes as naturally as breathing. "Perhaps it would be best if you came inside. It's rather chilly out here, and I sense you have a lot to say. Kimiko?"
It takes Kimiko a moment to realise he means her, and not her half-naked doppelganger. "Uh, yes Master Fung?"
"It would perhaps be prudent if you fetched some clothes for our guest? And if you could send Dojo to me, I would be very grateful." He ushers her other self inside and looks back, waiting for a reply, as though it was an actual question and not a thinly veiled order.
"Uh, yes. Master Fung. Right away. Master Fung," Kimiko stutters. Three bags full, Master Fung, part of her feels like adding, but she refrains. Master Fung has a mind like a buzz saw hiding behind a face like an elderly apple. If he thinks usurping her role as carer for her doppelganger is a good idea, then she can't very well accuse him of stealing her thunder. Ha ha. Besides which, the other Kimiko looks very seriously flustered, and from the conclusions about her toughness and character Kimiko has already drawn, this does not seem like a Good Thing.
She scampers off to retrieve the Capri pants and halter neck top, wondering where Dojo could be. As if the universe (or maybe the multiverse, since it's been coming out to play so often lately) is listening, she runs across him on the other side of the courtyard and passes on that Master Fung wants to see him right away, and that the other Kimiko is with him.
Dojo nods, more solemn than usual. "I'll boogie right over there. Uh, Kimiko?"
"Yeah?"
"How much did your … how much did the other, uh, you say about the world she comes from?"
"Not much. Just that it's different than ours in some ways, and the same in others. She knew stuff, y'know? Stuff I never told anyone here about, from before I became a Dragon. So I figure, maybe our two worlds were the same up to a point, and then … what's the word? Moved apart? Split?"
"Diverged?"
"Yeah, that's it. Like with the two futures – one with Old Omi, and one without an Omi at all."
Dojo sticks out his lower lip in thought and taps his chin with one claw. "Nothing else? She didn't mention anything more than that?"
"No. Oh, apart from something called a 'Shade'. Maybe a really big sunhat, or palm tree, or something? She got really upset about that and ran off, and I think she said something about it before, right after she and the other Clay first got here and she was acting all weird around Raimundo. I think that's what she's talking to Master Fung about, actually."
"Right." Dojo's face resolves itself into a purposeful mask. He slithers down the steps and onto the cobbles, but pauses at the bottom to turn and look back at her. His face is funny, but not 'funny ha ha', more 'funny disturbing'. "Clay – that is, the other Clay, not ours – he was a bit freer with his info. He said some stuff that … he said some heavy stuff. So if you see the others and they act a little … off, then that's probably why."
"Jeez Louise, Dojo, you make it sound like Raimundo went evil again and took over the world." It's said with a laugh, but all humour gurgles away like dirty bathwater at Dojo's expression. "Oh hell, that's it, isn't it?"
"Not exactly."
"But Raimundo's evil in their world? Is that why she – the other Kimiko was being so freaky around him? I guess that'd make sense. How long has he been like that? Did he ever come back from the dark side after Wuya? Is Wuya ruling their world?"
"No, Wuya was defeated by you Dragons in that world, just the same as here. And Raimundo isn't evil, although from what Clay Mark II said, their Kimiko acts like he is."
She screws up her face in confusion. "What?"
A door bangs open. A high-pitched female voice, full of anger, floats across the courtyard accompanied by Master Fung's distinctive calming tones, and then the door slams shut again.
"I'd better go," says Dojo, wiggling away as fast as his coils will allow.
"But what about Raimundo?" Kimiko's question echoes back at her, unanswered. She frowns, resentful that she's the one in the dark while everyone else finds out what's going on. Isn't she the one who's alternate double popped in for a visit? Shouldn't that earn a little more respect? At the very least, Dojo could've explained what he meant by the evil-but-not-evil Raimundo remark.
Grunting irritably, she goes to fetch the abandoned clothes, which lay in a pathetic little pile like the aftermath of a racy prom night.
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