14. Adapt

"It's easier if you just read the scroll," Kimiko says breathlessly.

Clay stares at the chickenscratchings arranged across the parchment. "Uh, I can't."

"Shoot, I forgot. Here, let me read it to you."

As Xiaolin Dragons, they've been granted the power to understand any spoken language in their pursuit of the Shen Gong Wu and their eternal struggle against the Heylin. Unfortunately, this doesn't spill over into the written word. One of the many duties of the monks at each temple is to translate and copy out the most important scrolls into the languages of each new generation of Dragons. Unfortunately, there are so many scrolls that the oldest and those considered least important are often left in their original Chinese, or whatever other language they're written in. Not all the documents in the Xiaolin archives started life in China.

Not that Kimiko can actually read ancient Chinese. Japanese and English, sure, but not Chinese.

After she has finished reading aloud to him, Clay looks back at her with nothing short of amazement. "Pardon my language, but … damn. I weren't never expectin' that. I feel as confused as a prairie dog in the Arctic."

They're hiding in the Shen Gong Wu vault, though they haven't descended the spiral staircase to where the Wu are kept. It's the one place in the whole temple where they can be sure of a little privacy. Kimiko knows that her bursting in on dinner and dragging Clay away by his arm will have made everyone curious, but being here is a signal to the others for them to keep away for the time being. There isn't much to be said for the rep she has acquired since getting here, but in this case it's useful. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end if she flies into a rage, which is usually what follows any odd behaviour.

"I wasn't either," she says. "But it does make a lot of sense."

"I get that, but still …" Clay scratches the back of his head. "Damn. So what do we do now?"

"I was kind of hoping you'd tell me."

"You want me to decide? All on my lonesome?"

"Yes. No. I don't know."

"Glad we got that cleared up."

"I don't know what we should do, Clay. The others," Kimiko gestures vaguely at the doorway, "are all working their butts off to help us, and now this … This changes everything."

"I might venture that it don't actually change a thing."

She nods. "There is that, if it's true."

"You think it ain't?"

She stares at the parchment, feels the heft and weight of it, and the roughness against her fingertips. "No. I'm pretty sure it's true. Master Monk Guan sure picked a hell of a time to hand this over."

"Master Monk Guan gave you this?"

"Is there an echo in here?" She unties the ribbon from the other scroll and pushes it into his hands, exchanging it for the ancient one. The ribbon is crumpled where she hastily tied up the younger scroll after reading it. "Here. You need to read this one as well."

He obviously notes the scroll's age. "But I can't read -"

"Trust me, this one you can."

"Huh?"

"Just look at it, okay?"

He does so. It takes longer than the first. Kimiko waits impatiently, resisting the urge to start tapping her foot and drumming her fingers against her arm only through sheer force of will. When Clay finally looks up, she sees uncertainty and sadness in his eyes.

"Well now," is all he says.

"Yeah," she replies. "It clears up a few things, doesn't it?"

"It does, at that." He looks back at the scroll. "So … this spells out what we gotta do better than a school ma'am with a pointer, don't it?"

"Does it?" Kimiko isn't sure what to think anymore. Her basic survival instinct is fighting with what she has read. She has always prided herself on having her own mind and not needing anyone else to make decisions for her. It's one of the things that has always most messed up the relationship with her mother – Kimiko's insistence that her choices are the right ones, and shouldn't be dictated by tradition or those nebulous boundaries laid down by 'marriagability'. Even when her choices turn out to be completely wrong, they're still hers, and she zealously guards her right to make them. Being the only girl in a temple of men and boys only ever sharpened this instinct. She has never wanted to be known as the weak little woman who needs to be rescued. She has never wanted anyone to think she can't take care of herself.

But what she has learned threatens this in a fundamental way, and she finds herself retreating, hiding away inside herself and leaning against Clay for assistance in a way she could never have imagined doing only a year ago. Relying on other Dragons has always been hard for her, but being a Dragon has taught her it's okay to admit you need help, or that you can't always cope alone. Still, for Kimiko, relying on others in the field is very different than relying on them for other, more personal things.

Man, has it really only been a year since the Shade appeared and everything went to hell in a handbasket? Adapt or die, that's what they had to learn after the Shade entered their lives. Adapt or die.

Adapt or die.

But what if dying isn't in the offing? What if dying would be merciful compared to what she and Clay are facing? Adapt or total annihilation. Adapt or find yourself snuffed out like a birthday candle. Adapt or be erased from existence. Adapt or be removed from the fabric of the whole freaking universe. No afterlife. No reincarnation. No Big Prada Sample Sale in the Sky.

Kimiko knows there is only one viable option for them: adapt.

"Doesn't it?" Clay says in answer to her question.

She sighs. "I hate this."

Clay stares at her for a moment. Then, wordlessly, he rolls up the scroll, tucks it into his sash and draws her into his arms. It's a plain old hug, the kind she might have wiggled out of a few years ago, but which she learned to accept as they became friends and she realised how much of Clay's communication comes from being tactile. He peppers his speech with southernisms and corny phrases that use a lot of words to say very little, and that used to irritate the hell out of her, but now she knows that Clay's idea of talking is only half to do with words. He can say a hell of a lot more with a gentle touch or a nod of his head. His hug now says: I'm here, I've got you, I understand and I agree, but I won't let you face this alone. Most importantly, it says: I will not let you go.

Kimiko hugs him back, becoming his anchor as much as he is hers. Clay doesn't cling; he's not that kind of person. Even so, she feels a slight tremble in him and knows he's just as frightened about this as she is. Who would ever have predicted things would turn out this way? Who would ever have thought they would turn out this way?

Clay pulls back to hold her at arm's length. "You look about as happy as a dead pig in sunshine."

She pulls a face. "Ew. Way to ruin the moment." Then she kisses him. Like his hug, there's more to it than just a meeting of lips, but she uses words to say what really needs saying. "We don't have much time."

"Uh-huh." Reluctantly he lets go of her waist. He hands back the scroll and she rewraps the ribbon around it. "Reckon we oughta tell 'em?"

Kimiko thinks of the look on her double's face when she thought they'd found a solution. "They'll try to stop us."

"I don't much like keeping secrets from 'em."

"Neither do I."

She looks around at the Shen Gong Wu vault, which she never thought she would see again after their temple was destroyed. They've been given so many gifts here: the opportunity to experience what they thought they'd lost, the knowledge that their friends live on in some way, and a deeper appreciation of those they lost to the Shade. Kimiko feels a stab of guilt at how she treated Dashi's memory, and Dashi himself while he was alive. He sacrificed everything to give herself and Clay a second chance. He couldn't have known that chance would be cut short so abruptly. Last week she would have blown off the thought that she would want to be anything like Dashi. Now she thinks there were worse things. Dashi was arrogant, could be a Grade A jerk, had an ego the size of Tokyo, and treated everyone from Omi to Master Fung with the kind of offhand condescension that made Kimiko grind her teeth practically to stumps. However, he was also smart, self-sacrificing, loyal and compassionate underneath it all.

Make it count.

His final words – or the last he said to her, at least. She can't let him down. She can't let the Xiaolin Dragons here down – not Omi, not Raimundo, not this world's Clay, and not her own double, either. Especially not the other Kimiko.

"Think we can spare the time for a real goodbye this time?"

Clay smiles at her. "Thank you."