9. Jack
They make plans.
It's not a smooth process.
The other Kimiko sometimes radiates elation, sometimes bitterness, and other times blistering anger, with no discernable trigger patterns. These can turn a conversation about airport arrival lounges into a tirade and a burning fist-print on the tabletop.
Kimiko learns how to anticipate an explosion, and either steers the conversation in another direction, or removes herself from the firing line. In other circumstances she might have fought her corner, but instead she retreats and leaves the other Kimiko to work out her own frustrations. There's no point in making an issue out of it when it truly can't be helped, and most of the time she's perfectly rational.
The other Clay has a habit of appearing just when his love has flown into a tizzy, and though he doesn't attempt to calm her down either, he does talk to Kimiko. In this way she comes to really understand the parts of their life and their world her doppelganger neglected to mention.
"She feels mighty guilty."
"Guilty? But it wasn't her fault -"
"Don't matter. Survivor guilt, see? Makes her tetched from time to time."
"But not you?"
"Now that'd be tellin'."
In this way the two girls reach a compromise, and provisionally arrange to visit Tokyo in two weeks time. Kimiko finds she's kind of looking forward and dreading it at the same time.
Master Monk Guan arrives and takes up residence in the temple. He's a calming presence, and doesn't even flinch when confronted with his own fate in the other world. Kimiko supposes he's been around so long, and seen so much that alternate worlds are no biggie for him. She wishes she could be so blasé, but she's getting better. It's no longer quite so surreal to wake up and see her own furrowed brow in the next bedroll.
He works indefatigably with Master Fung and Dojo. They inspect the broken table, the walls and floor where they appeared, and summon the doppelgangers to master Fung's quarters, grilling for details about their last battle with the Shade. What sort of magick did Grand Master Dashi use? What did it look like? What words did he say? Was he interrupted before he could finish? They answer as best they can. It takes hours. Afterwards the other Kimiko goes straight to the training ground to smash things.
She's so turbulent. She's stabilised a lot since they first arrived, but her edges are still noticeably jagged, and she still has a fuse the size of an ant's kneecap. She's better when her Clay is around; and right after venting when she's too exhausted for her emotions to engulf her. In those moments she can act almost normal, and grows gradually more so the longer they spend at the temple. The old grey stones draw out her bitterness like you might suck venom from a snakebite. Once or twice Kimiko finds herself sitting back and just appreciating the difference.
For her part she feels exculpated, like she's helping to perform some great act of compassion, righting a wrong she hadn't even known she committed. It gives her a warm, happy glow, like that kid in the Oaty Oatmeal commercial back home.
So it is that she barely looks up when, three days later, her doppelganger appears in the kitchen doorway when she's in there shelling peas for dinner. A glance shows the other Kimiko is muddy, her outfit torn, and her hair looks like it's been combed with a hedge. That's pretty typical, but something else makes Kimiko look again. Rather than relaxed, the other girl looks more keyed up than ever. She crackles with so much energy she's nearly throwing off sparks.
Kimiko sets down the peas. "What is it?"
"Jackbots are attacking the temple."
"Aw, man. Just when I was getting used to all the peace and quiet."
They hurry outside. Master Monk Guan, Master Fung and Dojo left this morning to talk with the hermit who lives in a cave in the mountains, who talks to animals and has probably forgotten more magick than they'll ever learn. The young Dragons are in charge, and of course that means time is ripe for a crisis.
The other Kimiko was quite right: a bevy of jackbots hang in the air by the Shen Gong Wu Vault, weapons out and facing off against the two Clays. Neither side has made a move yet. It's like some bizarre modern art tableaux.
"Where's Jack?" Kimiko asks, joining them. Not one jackbot reacts.
As if in answer, a mangled helipack rotor hurtles out the Vault door, closely followed by its owner. Omi lands lightly at the foot of the steps, posing, and Raimundo emerges behind him.
"Dude, don't do that. You look like a model at the end of a runway."
"Run away? Why would I do that when I am victorious?"
Jack groans. "I swear you understand more than you say you do. Nobody's that naive." He's holding his arm where he landed awkwardly, and Kimiko feels her doppelganger stiffen beside her.
This is the first time anybody's attacked the temple since the doubles got here. That it's Jack makes things all the more complicated – in their world Jack is (was) a teammate, but in this one he's not. He tried to be once, but failed dismally (though Omi still maintains he didn't, in fact, betray them at all, but rather betrayed himself). Things never got that far in that far-distant world. There, Wuya was eaten by the Shade, which also blew up Jack's house, and he united with the Xiaolin Dragons because he had nowhere else to go. Though there were subsequent opportunities for him to leave, he showed a surprising fortitude that gives credence to Omi's theory, and stuck by them in their fight until the Shade took his soul too. He was, Kimiko considers, a hero.
But that was there, and this is here.
And that's Jack calling up another phalanx of jackbots to surround and fire on them.
Kimiko cartwheels out of the way and wishes she'd thought to bring her weapons with her. But this is just Jack, and the day she can't beat him and his toys without heavy artillery is the day she trades her signed Gackt album for extra algebra homework.
"Water!" Omi slaps away three jackbots with a flick of his wrist. "Do you not ever learn, Jack Spicer? You fail so many times, yet you still employ this same strategy over and over again."
"You're one to talk," Jack replies from behind a pot plant. He's working furiously to reattach his helipack rotor and squealing whenever shrapnel whizzes past. "I thought you already learned your lesson about the Ring of the Nine Dragons."
"Excuse me?"
"The doubles, Chrome Dome. How'd you manage to make use the Wu on two people, anyhow?"
"Oh, they are not from Shen Gong Wu. They are -"
"A new form of magick we're using to kick your butt," Raimundo interrupts. "Consider yourself a crash test dummy, Spicer." He bicycle-kicks a jackbot head at the pot plant and grins.
Kimiko understands that Rai doesn't want Jack to know the doppelgangers' true nature in case he uses it against them, or passes the information on to someone who might have more sinister uses for whatever brought them here. Until they know more about that mysterious magick, it's better to keep it under wraps.
Omi looks puzzled, though, and tries to ask Raimundo what he's thinking when an enormous thump resounds across the courtyard. It sounds like a car being dumped into a crusher.
The two Clays look up from their pile of destroyed jackbots. The other Kimiko pauses, a handful of sparking wires clutched in her fist. She ripped them from a bot's chest like a still-beating heart, and stands like a carved tribute to some violent deity. They all listen to the strange noise.
"Ha!" Jack crows, rising into the air. He wobbles a little thanks to the bent rotor, but gloats regardless. "Cower in fear, Xiaolin Losers, at my greatest ever creation. Behold, the Jackinator!"
The pale facsimile looms over the temple's highest tower, casting them in shadow. It leans over, as if they're so small it has to squint just to acknowledge them, and Kimiko can see the red-painted studs holding the goggles to its head. The robot is jerky and menacing, built like an aircraft carrier and elegant as a big stick with a nail through the end, but it does look exactly like Jack – gigantism thing excepted, obviously. Bazookas sit on its shoulders like lapels, and each button of its titanium coat clearly hides a weapon of some kind. Its fingertips are bayonets, and its coattails glitter with a sharpness to rival the Sword of the Storm. It glares down at the assembled Dragons, and Kimiko feels like there's something approaching intelligence in those luminous red eyes.
She isn't frightened, but she does back up a step.
"Who's the crash test dummy now?" Jack cups his ear. "What's that? I can't heeeear youuuu."
Raimundo throws himself at the Jackinator. It sweeps him aside with one massive hand, and he crashes into a wall. The bayonets miss by millimetres. When he turns it reveals an uneven tear down the back of his shirt.
"Great plan, fearless leader," Kimiko snipes. "I think General Custer tried something similar."
"Clam up and melt that thing," he retorts, clinging to the brickwork by his fingertips. "Omi, fetch some Wu."
"You didn't bring any out with you?"
"It's Jack, Kimiko. Jack."
Omi, the closest, tries to dart through the Vault doorway, but the Jackinator moves with surprising speed to block his way. He snaps a kick at its legs, but plates on its kneecaps peel back to reveal –
"Mister Won! Mister Ton!"
The two monks who man the Infirmary writhe in their bonds. They're each strapped down by their ankles, wrists and waists, and serve as a human shield for the Jackinator. If the Dragons cut it down, it will fall on its knees and crush them. If they force it to move too much its joints will stretch them until they break in two. Small lasers zip into view next to each man's head, further emphasising how much is at stake if the Dragons try to fight this giant opponent.
Kimiko gapes. She talked to Mister Won just this morning about more sleeping draught for her doppelganger. He rubbed a wrinkly hand through her hair in that way she hates, but can't bring herself to reprimand him for. How on earth did Spicer kidnap him and Mister Ton without anyone noticing? Her eyes darken as she regards the kindly old men who have tended the young Dragons' every wound since the day they came to the temple. Mister Won is seventy and blind in one eye, while Mister Ton can only walk by means of a rattan cane. They're not helpless, but they're not fighters either.
"This is low even for you, Spicer," she yells.
"Hey, don't act like you're surprised. Every time we meet I introduce myself as Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius. The clue is in the title."
"Fly from my path, foul fiend!" Omi alliterates.
The Jackinator just looks at him. Unlike his smaller Robo-Jacks, Spicer has elected not to give this one moveable expressions. Its face is an immutable glower, which it now fixes on Omi. It raises a foot to stomp on him, and at its knee Mister Won howls with pain as his body elongates.
"Stop!" Omi cries. "Halt! Desist! I am taking back what I said! Stay where you are! Do not move, uh, lovely creature who is so tall and … and … handsome?"
The Jackinator pauses. It seems to consider his words, and then lowers its foot.
It's still blocking the door to the Vault, and Spicer's still laughing exultantly. Mister Won whimpers, but he's still alive at least.
Kimiko matches the Jackinator's glare with her own.
As sticky moments go, this is a full scale toffee pudding. Jack descends, and until that moment Kimiko didn't realise you could fly and swagger at the same time. She clenches her fists, wondering what to do, and whether Raimundo will show off those strategising skills and bark out a plan for them to follow – when suddenly someone else barks in a voice like a whip cracking.
"How could you?!"
Everyone turns to look, including Jack, so he's facing the doppelganger Kimiko when she thuds into him. They roll over across the cobbles in a tangle of limbs, and the reattached helipack rotor comes off again, grounding them both. Nobody moves, as not one of them understands what is going on – not even the second Clay.
Jack squeals, but adjoins it with the words: "I like this one, she doesn't mind hugging me! Hey, don't glue these two halves of Kimiko back together. I'll take one and you take one and everybody can be happy."
"You idiot!" the doppelganger screams in his face.
"Huh?"
"Don't you know what you've done?"
Jack blinks. "Finally beaten you losers?"
"You should've come to join us, not to beat us!"
"Tried that once. It didn't take." He attempts to push her off, but she's leaning her weight against him. It's not much, but Jack is far feebler than he should be given how much running away he does. Plus he seems to enjoy having her sit on top of him.
"What do you expect to gain from all this? Shen Gong Wu? Take the stupid things, but Jack, don't stay evil. It's not you."
"I really like this one!" Jack cries, but also frowns. "And I am too evil. Why does nobody believe I can make it on my own? I don't need Wuya or Chase or Hannibal Roy Bean to be a villain. I can do it just fine on my lonesome."
"You're not evil!" There's a slight crazed look in the other Kimiko's eyes. She grabs Jacks lapels and jerks him up and down. "You're not!"
"Aiya! Get off me, you crazy girl! Did you get all the nuttiness when you two split? You're the psychotic twin, aren't you? Help! Jackinator, save me!"
The robot turns its immense head to them and raises a hand, palm outwards. A small hole opens in the centre and the unmistakable head of a missile pokes through.
"Crap!" Raimundo yells, and flings himself off the wall. He cannons into the hand, knocking it askew, and the missile flies off in a different direction than the one intended.
The water tower explodes, gushing its contents everywhere.
"Kimiko Two, move!" Rai uses the nickname he invented for her while he scrabbles for purchase on the smooth metal. The Jackinator swats at him, leaving bayonet grooves in its own arm and making him curse like a sailor as he skids and dodges and tries to sever one of its limbs. "Move!"
Yet the other Kimiko refuses to surrender her hold on Jack, and continues to scream in his face. "You're not evil! You saved my life more than once. You died for us! You're good, and you should be fighting with us, not against us! Pease, Jack. Please!"
"Crazy chica!" Jack tries to get away from her, but to no avail.
Finally Kimiko snaps herself from her reverie and sprints over to the pair. She yanks her double up by the shoulders, hissing, "Are you nuts? If you won't let go, at least threaten him so he releases Mister Won and Mister Ton." To emphasise, she summons a ball of small flames to surround her fist and brandishes it at Jack.
He squeals. "Don't hurt me!"
"Let's see which is faster, Jack: me or your Jackinator's missiles."
"Don't hurt me! Please, please don't hurt me!" Jack covers his head and quivers.
Kimiko can't help curling her lip. This is the same boy who fought so bravely in the alternate world? This is the boy who lost the feeling in one hand when the Shade rammed the broken Monkey Staff through his shoulder, and still refused to leave the temple? "There's a simple solution, Jack. Let them go and call off your robot."
"Okay, okay, I'll let them go."
The two Clays receive Mister Won and Mister Ton as their restraints whip back and they fall to earth. Each cradles one old man in a distorted nurturing parent pose, and under Rai's orders they hastily retreat to deposit them safely away from the battlefield.
"And the Jackinator," Kimiko says.
"Fine. But you have to let me up first."
She wavers, but her double acquiesces without comment, shoving Kimiko backwards with anger in her eyes. She looks pale, and her hair is scuffed wildly. Dark rings encircle her eyes. If she didn't know better Kimiko would say the other girl looks ill, but there's no time to ponder it as Jack leaps backwards and points at them.
"Ha ha! Jackbots, attack!"
The last flurry of jackbots swarm over the two girls. Jack dashes for the Vault as they fend them off.
Omi jumps at Jack, summoning the spilled water to hover above him in a swirling vortex. Jack skids to a halt and yells, "Jackinator! Another hostage!"
"Aw, crap." Raimundo drops to the floor, but the Jackinator grabs him before he can land and slams him against the wall again. This time cracks spider-web out from point of impact, and Raimundo groans as he's pinned by the same massive hand that just shot down the water tower. It's clear that his wits are scattered with pain, just as it's clear that, should another missile be fired, it will first go through his belly before obliterating the Vault, collapsing the walls and burying all the Shen Gong Wu under a few tonnes of stone.
It's a stalemate. Raimundo has clearly blacked out, head flopped forward between two of the Jackinator's fingers. Omi's vortex churns above Jack's head, while the two Kimikos stand in a ring of growing destruction and sparking jackbot carcasses.
Jack smirks at Omi and clicks his fingers. "Checkmate."
Omi frowns at him, clearly unsure what to do next. If he finishes his attack Raimundo will be hurt – killed even. Yet if he does nothing Spicer will escape and take their Shen Gong Wu with him. Omi has always been Jack's staunchest defender, but Kimiko can see that even he is lost as to how he should react to this new development.
As far as evildoers go, Jack has always been the underachiever of the bunch. He has lofty ideas and a real gift for inventive plans, but his execution stinks. Plus he's always had barriers he doesn't cross, which set him apart from the average villain. Where Chase Young would try to kill them simply for looking at him wrong, Jack always leaves their skirmishes with … not dignity, but with a kind of warped morality. He can and will pull dirty tricks, double-cross and yank the rug out from under you, but only to steal the power he wants. Very rarely does he labour under complete maliciousness. His aim has always been to defeat the Xiaolin Warriors, perhaps make them his indentured servants, not to murder them. Jack Spicer does not kill.
Or at least, he didn't kill until after experiencing the world where his evil half was trapped in the Yin Yang World and his good side left to run amok. Perhaps this is the after-effect of that; a reaffirmation of his evil by taking it to the next level.
Kimiko senses the mounting frenzy of her double's movements, and hears her muttering softly, "No, no, no, no, no, no -" The words seem weighted with things unsaid, and she's glaring so ferociously Kimiko half expects the oncoming jackbots to liquefy. Jack's presence, plus the obtrusive differences between him and the Jack she knew have created in her a kind of hysterical jitteriness that reminds Kimiko of people who bounce their heads off brick walls to relieve tension. Now Raimundo is also in danger, and it's common knowledge how protective she is of him. Kimiko can feel the dilemma building rapidly in her doppelganger, like a tailback on a busy road at rush hour.
Not that she's exactly a ball of calm herself. Alarm flares inside her, as does the compulsion to pulverise the Jackinator and rescue Raimundo. She refuses to read any more into it than concern for a teammate, but the sight of him, loose-limbed and helpless, galvanises her to fight even harder.
Omi looks around for guidance, and spies the two Clays returning across the courtyard, a flock of other temple monks peering through windows in their wake. He opens his mouth to call to them, but what he's about to say is lost as the Jackinator suddenly whirrs into action.
"What the -" Jack stares up at it in bewilderment. "Hey, I didn't order you move. I'm gonna use Raimundo as a bargaining chip for the Wu. Stay put!"
But the Jackinator doesn't stay put. It looks directly at its creator, and from inside the unmoving mouth come the words, "No more orders from you, small fry. I'm in charge now."
"Aw, man. Can't I for once build a version of myself that doesn't double-cross me?"
Several things happen at once. The Jackinator removes its hand from the wall, and in so doing releases Raimundo, who plummets like a stone. Omi throws out his whirlpool, flattening it to catch his friend. Simultaneously the two Clays bound forward in a twin kick that looks so polished it shines. They connect with the Jackinator's kneecaps, driving them backwards with the concerted power of a boulder rolling down a mountainside.
Flipping end over end, the other Kimiko makes every part of her body a weapon. She tucks and rolls beneath the sweeping attack of the jackbots, then kicks up out of the roll, sending them flying. One crashes into another, and then another, like bowling pins. Her path cleared, she hares towards the falling robot.
For a moment time freezes. Later, Kimiko remembers what comes next only as a series of sound bites and snapshot images: The crunch and creak of metal as the Jackinator topples forward; Omi cresting a wave that carries himself, Jack and the unconscious Raimundo out of its path; the crackle of the giant robot's eye lasers; Jack's terrified scream as the red beams and bazookas blast right at him; her double's frantic yell; and finally the sudden eruption of heat so intense even she's shocked by it.
Then the world snaps back into focus. Kimiko smashes the last jackbot and looks over to where the remains of the Jackinator bubble like spilled witch's brew. The cobblestones are blackened in a wide circle; as are the walls, save for a large Jackinator-shaped clear patch against the side of the tower. Omi, Raimundo, Jack and the Clays are surrounded by steam where Omi's water shield met the blast.
Everyone is staring at the epicentre. The other Kimiko wobbles slightly. She's still surrounded by a halo of tiny flames, which backlight her like some soft-focus romantic movie heroine. She has eyes only for Jack, who gawks back at her like she's just grown a second head.
"You … just saved my life," he boggles, as though none of them have ever done it before. Granted, nobody ever did it by calling down a firestorm on a giant homicidal root, but still, the implication smarts.
"You're … not … evil," she pants. "I know you're not. You can't be. That can't be different." She gazes at him, and nobody able to see her eyes can mistake the pleading there. "You were my friend…" Slowly she wavers back and forth, and then crumples like a marionette with all its strings cut.
"Kimiko!" the other Clay roars. Kimiko has never heard her Clay sound like that. She's never heard anybody sound quite like that. His voice is full of such anguish it corrodes the inside of her own stomach. She abruptly feels quite sick and runs towards them.
Yet that isn't the end of it. Kimiko reaches the huddled group just as they gently turn the other girl over, and a gasp catches in her throat. The warm, happy Oaty Oatmeal finishes fading away, leaving only acidic dread.
Her doppelganger's face is ashen, and looks a little strange; out of focus, almost, as though being filmed through a smeared lens.
And lower down, where her stomach should be, is a ragged-edged hole through which they can see the underlying courtyard.