By the time they arrived at their destination, Jiayi was looking absolutely wretched. Jack opted to leave her in the forest, more or less hiding her weakened body among some plants, and set off to venture into the lair alone. The girl was growing paler, her limbs feeling heavy. She let her eyes half-close as she stared up at the blue sky above her. If I die, it might be better. I like Jack. I don't want to leave him behind. I like those monks, too. And Guan. I would feel bad about leaving Guan behind. She shakily lifted a hand, gaping at the blood-painted flesh. She had bled through the bandage by this point. "…so this is how it ends…"

"You've been alive over hundreds of years and you're gonna let it end this way?" The voice was not familiar, but the large armored figure was. It loomed over her, blocking the sunlight, and the bird perched on its shoulder screeched at her. "I didn't help you so you could get yourself killed 1,500 years later, girl."

"…helped me…? You think you helped me? I drank it…just like you said. I put my plan into action. You know…the plan that you said would work. The plan that would make him notice me…make him love me. You lied."

"I saw how it worked out."

"…it didn't work out…"

"Now I told you that you'd find someone better, didn't I?"

"And I told you that I loved him…and you said fine." She clenched her hand into a red, sticky fist. "So what do you think…? Will Jack get it to me in time?"

"He better. Otherwise that's a lot of effort wasted."

She took a shaky breath, her chest hurting as blood oozed through Jack's shirt and soaked the grass beneath her. "If you knew that he would despise me…why did you urge me on? In what way did you benefit from making me eternally young?"

He chuckled and she recognized it from the night she had turned. "You were supposed to be the perfect tool. The perfect bait. That night you were defeated, I was going to collect you. But that fool Guan beat me to it. Guess it's not too late. I could still get some use out of you. At least now he knows about you."

"…Chase Young…?" She winced. Just speaking the name seemed to increase her pain. "And just how did you expect to use me? Bait? A tool?"

"To control him."

Jiayi watched him draw out of her line of sight and let her hand fall limply to her side. Hannibal Roy Bean. I haven't seen him since that night that he convinced me to drink the soup. I should have known he would have such a stupid ulterior motive. Controlling Chase Young by using me. It's nonsense. She lied there for a while longer, unsure of how much time passed. Movement was becoming difficult and painful.

Her mind began to wander, thinking back to her past. Back to her beginnings. She had grown up outside of a small village in China, raised by her mother and father. Her mother was skilled at making clothes and raising cattle. Her father had been skilled at making armor and weapons. Many in the village had claimed that Jiayi's husband would be very lucky to have such in-laws and to have such a pretty wife. It had always irritated her. Young men had courted her incessantly for a while until one day, when they all seemed to lose interest except for one. The other young men seemed to almost fear her after that.

She snapped out of her memories, back to reality, when she realized that the sky was moving. No…I'm moving. Something was dragging her backwards through the forest. Jiayi reached to the back of her neck and nicked her fingers on sharp teeth. A warning growl from the creature made her drop her hands at her sides once more. The girl tilted her head back slightly and saw a tiger's face staring back at her. A tiger. I'm being dragged away by a tiger. So this is how it ends? 1,500 years and I'm going to be devoured alive by a tiger. She snorted and shakily lifted a hand, brushing her bloody fingers over the creature's muzzle in a soothing way. "…almost ironic, huh…? The stormy tiger gets eaten by an orange one…but I don't blame you…" A flicker of sympathy in its eyes made her sigh and go lax once more.

Jiayi hoped that Jack would be safe. She worried that he might search for her, putting himself in danger. She worried that he might find her corpse. Despite all of these worries, she was glad of one thing. I'll never have to see Hannibal Roy Bean or Chase Young ever again. I won't be used as a tool to…The tiger had stopped and Jiayi realized that they were at the foot of a volcano. Her shirt was released and the creature bounded off, leaving her alone in the grass. The girl's hands lifted to rub her eyes, smudging her pale face with blood. When she moved them away, she was staring up at an increasingly familiar face. "…Jack…?"

"I got help," he said with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. "The only problem is-"

"Move aside." Chase smirked down at her look of pain and frustration. "You should be happier to see me. I'm the only one that can help you now."

Even as he lifted her bridal style, Jiayi scowled. "I don't…want your help. I would rather die," she snarled.

"You don't have a choice. Besides, I haven't named my price yet."

Her sharp amber eyes were on the sky and then a ceiling as the man carried her. She stole a glance at his neck and saw that he was fully healed with no evidence of the wound she had inflicted. "What would someone like you want?"

The man settled her in a chair at a table, a bowl of the familiar soup sitting in front of her. "Eat first. We can negotiate later."

To her irritation, he sat across from her. Jack took the seat beside her, giving the girl an expectant look. With trembling hands, she lifted a spoon and began to eat. She felt two pairs of eyes on her and would have growled at them to look away, but quickly became distracted. Jiayi could feel the wound on her side sealing up and mending itself. It felt peculiar, but it confirmed what she had suspected. Chase was not doing this for Jack. He was providing her with the soup for his own selfish reasons. Her eyes narrowed upon him as she finished eating, debating whether or not she could grab Jack and dash out of the lair before they were caught.

"You're a monster." Her words were cold, harsh. She stood and put both hands on the table, her hips subconsciously swaying from side to side. "You're a monster…and a weakling. If your plan was to make me indebted to you…by injuring me at my weakest…and providing me with the one thing that will keep me alive…you're a monster."

Chase raised an eyebrow, more amused than angry. "Do you think it wise to insult your host?" he taunted.

"I don't recall agreeing to be your guest." Jiayi grabbed Jack's hand and turned to lead him out the door, but found her path blocked by the other immortal. She took a step back from him, grimacing when his hands found her waist and held tightly. "Release me or-"

"Release you so that you can go back to living a lie? Why do you try so hard to be good when you could give in and let your natural evil take over?" he hissed, leaning down to her ear.

Jack watched this with wide eyes, fearful for many reasons. The first fear was that his idol would kill him and then Jiayi. The second fear was that his idol would take Jiayi away from him, turn her against him. The girl's hand left his as she reached to grab Chase's dark hair and pull hard. Jack took several steps back as a low growl left the man.

"You weren't meant to be on the Xiaolin side. Did you think it would be that easy to just change? I can see it in your eyes that you know. You can never be like them. Xun."

"My name is Jiayi," she snarled. She pulled harder at his hair, but it was clear that he felt no pain from it. In fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect. The growl echoing from the back of his throat was not one of pain or anger. "I'm not like you! I'm not evil!" Jiayi twisted out of his hold, taking on a defensive stance. "I'm not evil," the girl repeated, shaking slightly.

"You seem to forget the damage I inflicted upon you earlier. Do you really think that you could defeat me?" Chase crossed his arms, watching her closely. She was nervous and it showed in her every movement. "You just don't remember what it really feels like, do you? To watch pathetic humans quake in fear at your approach. To feel power running through your veins. True power. I can see it in your eyes. You've been restraining yourself for centuries."

When he advanced, it was in the fashion of a true predator. Jiayi's muscles tensed and she twisted out of his reach, making him step closer and closer as she continued to evade him. Much as she hated it, she felt a smirk taking form on her pale face as he became frustrated. Evenly matched. We really do seem to be close in terms of speed. Strength…not so much. But he hasn't seen all that I can do. Not even Guan has seen that. Jiayi twirled several steps away from Chase, snickered, and then closed in faster than he could blink. Her fingers tangled into his hair and when she twirled away again, it was with strands of long dark hair between her digits.

He growled lowly, finally beginning to lose his patience. "Enough of these games. You seem to forget who just saved your life."

"I never asked you to." Her hips were swaying back and forth in her excitement, making it look like she might pounce on him. She felt almost disgusted, though almost flattered, when she saw something flare in his eyes. Something she was only recently becoming familiar with and even then, only in Jack's eyes. Jack! That's right! Her gaze shifted to him with worry.

The redhead seemed to instantly understand, but was reluctant to leave her. "I-I'll be waiting outside, I guess."

They both watched him go, the girl's anxiety growing when Chase looked back to her. "You sent him away. What do you hope to gain? Do you think you can defeat me?"

"No…I don't plan to attempt it," she replied. Jiayi tilted her head, narrowing her gaze upon him. She was trying to put a name to what she saw in his eyes, but struggled. Not exactly like how Jack looks at me. Similar, but different.

"You and I are the same. Doesn't it stand to reason that you should give in to your urges and join me?" Chase saw her frown and he smirked, holding out a hand to her. "Join me and you won't need to hide your true nature. You can be as evil as you want. All I ask for in return is your submission."

"Ah…there it is. What you've been wanting…since this morning. Not lust. Not love. You just want to dominate me…you want to prove that you're above me…" Her frown shifted into a smirk of her own. "Well…you're ridiculous as you are foolish." She bit the inside of her cheek when he appeared right in front of her and moved to take a step back, but found her rear pressed against the edge of the table. Hands gripped her shoulders and she clenched her eyes shut, almost expecting him to throw her as he had earlier that day.

The man stared down at her in amusement. She was unlike most females he had encountered. Unlike most people. Jiayi Xun seemed to dislike her own kind as well as most humans. He had learned a few things about her since their first encounter the week before. She had gained eternal youth in the same way that he had. She avoided most people like the plague, with the exception of Guan. For reasons he had yet to discern, the other man had been hiding her from him for the past centuries. It only served to make him want her more now that he was aware of her presence. Jack seemed enamored with the girl already, which proved irritating despite the redhead presenting no real threat. Looking down at the girl, Chase's eyes were met by her feral amber glare. Her long, wavy hair fell over her half of her face and down her shoulders in dark locks. She looked afraid, but also furious.

Jiayi blinked up at him, feeling her face turning pink. "…how long do you intend to stand here like this…? It's been about ten minutes."

Upon closer, lengthier, inspection he saw something familiar in her face. Familiar from many, many years ago. His brow furrowed and his face drew closer to hers. She tried to lean back to put distance between herself and Chase, but ended up falling onto her back on the table. Her feet remained planted on the floor, her legs bent and straining painfully. His smirk returned and he pressed down on her shoulders hard. "Do you love him?"

"…a man like you…so arrogant and cold…uses a word like love?" she taunted.

"Do you love him?" His hold on her shoulders tightened until she cried out in pain.

"I don't see how it concerns you…and I'm not even certain who you're referring to." She felt him press against her and cringed. "…you're too close…"

"If I intend to dominate you, I intend to do it in every way." The words were spoken in a growl as he leaned down so his face nearly touched her neck.

The girl shivered, feeling teeth scrape along her pale throat. His lower half pressed tighter against hers and she bit her lower lip to silence a sound from escaping. I haven't been in a situation like this before. Jack…doesn't seem aggressive enough to get this close unless I start it. Guan would never treat me this way and…even the man I fell in love with…would never be this way with me. She shook her head, but one of his hands released her shoulder in favor of holding her jaw tightly, forcing her head back to give him better access to the girl's neck.

When Jiayi could no longer handle the strange sensations that he was causing, she twisted in an effort to pull free. His hold tightened on her, his teeth closed lightly on her skin. "Urh! Nnnnnh! D-don't-!" Her mouth opened in a silent cry when she felt his lips latch onto her flesh, one hand still holding her jaw and the other tracing down her side to her hip. "Let…go! Let go of me!" She reached to the back of his head and tangled her fingers into his hair before pulling harshly. He growled against her neck, sending vibrations into her skin, and his hips seemed to pull back slightly before thrusting against hers. A sound left her lips that made her blush madly.

"Weak," he murmured against her. "Weak and vicious. You know what I want though, don't you? There is no denying it. Stop restraining yourself and you will feel so much better."

Her eye twitched in anxiety, her eyes half-closed as she tugged at his hair again. It only made him thrust his hips against hers once more, sucking on her pallid neck. "You…don't know me. Don't pretend to know me!" Jiayi wedged a knee between them and shoved him away. She hated that she was panting and kept her eyes averted from his. "I'm leaving…you can't stop me."

"That's fine. I already took my payment." Chase walked around the table to the chair that he had previously occupied, sitting down. Lifting his bowl of soup to his lips, he drank deeply and kept his eyes locked on Jiayi. "I anticipate your return soon." He saw her stand, opening her mouth to argue, but he cut her off. "I did nothing to your food. I just know that you will be back soon. You can't resist coming back now."

"…you think you're that great…?" Jiayi crossed her arms, leaning on one hip and scowling. "Well you know…I have someone that I care deeply about…and I'm not likely to leave him any time soon…so best of luck in your pitiful endeavors."

"Is that a challenge? An invitation?" he taunted.