"On some level…I suppose I should appreciate your leadership. Who knows how long I might have fought him if you hadn't been there?" She stretched her arms over her head, back arching. The weather was much more pleasant than it had been the day before the battle.
"If you appreciate it, then why are you dragging me with you to that village?" Raimundo argued. "I have better things to do."
"I seriously doubt that. Kimiko said that you've taken to hiding in your room all day," Jiayi taunted. She tucked a strand of long blue hair behind her ear, watching him from the corner of her eye. He was frowning and trying to appear miserable, but she knew better. "Besides…I need someone to help me deliver the medicines that Omi made."
"So why not bring Omi?"
The girl turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "Raimundo…weren't you saying that you wanted my attention?" His face turned pink and he looked away, muttering something. "I'm paying attention to you today. Or hadn't you noticed?"
"It's just because Jack's parents are back so you can't hang out with him," he argued.
He was slightly correct. Jack's parents had returned and now Jack was spending time trying to explain to them why Jiayi was living there. For the time being, she had packed up her belongings and moved to the Xiaolin temple. Her reason for keeping Raimundo close, besides making him help her, was so she could try to subtly sway him back fully to the Xiaolin side. "Hm. You're being ridiculous. You know…most women see jealous men as being weak."
The boy could not hide his smirk. "Do you think Chase Young is weak?"
She smirked back at him. "The weakest."
"You know, if Jack's mom doesn't want you in their house, he won't argue with her. He's a total momma's boy. I bet he'd stop dating you if she told him to." He saw her expression turn to slight worry. "I'm not saying she will. But think about it. She's never met you, Jack hasn't known you for that long, and you look pretty suspicious."
"I realize that." Jiayi was glad when they arrived at the village. She deposited the baskets of medicine near a fence post at the edge of the village, collected the notes left there by villagers, and turned without giving the buildings a second glance. As they walked back toward the temple, she read a few of the notes and smiled sadly. "It seems a few of the children are thanking me for my cold remedies."
Raimundo took a note from her, but was unable to read the characters on it. "Why are they afraid of you anyway? They treat you like a monster. I'd think they would treat you like a god! You make medicines for them without asking for any payment! You do it because you know it's right! So why don't they worship you?"
She bit at her thumbnail and tucked the notes into her jacket pocket. "I mean…all it takes is one slip-up. One night, when I waited longer than usual to drink my soup…I turned into a tiger and my evil side started to take hold of me. I tore apart a goat from the village and someone saw me. I don't know how they knew it was me, but…ever since that incident…they've all feared me. Think of it this way, would you want to worship a monster?"
"I wouldn't say worship," he admitted. "But I am following you, so what does that say?"
A grin took form on her face and she ruffled his hair. "It tells me that you're a ridiculous person. But you're lucky. I enjoy ridiculous people. Just look at Jack for reference." She heard him snicker at this and her grin grew. "So…if I may ask…just why did you want my attention so badly? And why did you accept help from Wuya when you came to rescue me?"
Raimundo frowned and curled his hands into fists. She was looking at him with curiosity and he knew he should feel better about her asking. It meant that she was interested. Still, he felt almost as if he was being used. As if she was only spending time with him because Jack was unable to be with her. "Why do you care?"
"Why wouldn't I care?" Jiayi could tell by his body language that he was upset and she could easily guess why. "You know…you do remind me of him. My first love."
"What's similar?"
"Your smile. The way you talk. He always had this…carefree…sort of aura to him. There is a major difference though and it makes things difficult. If you were like him…exactly like him…I wouldn't be bothered. I would just shrug it off and I wouldn't care." She turned her head so that her bright amber eyes met his green eyes. "He…never cared about me. He never worried about me. He never smiled at me. I know that he would never risk his safety and sanity to protect me. So you need to understand that it's difficult for me to be around you…where you remind me of him in every way except for this one. So tell me. Why do you care?"
Realizing that she had started to step closer and closer to him with each word, he felt color rush to his face. "I-I don't know," he growled. "I like you, I guess. I like seeing you happy, but then I feel mad when I see happy with Jack. Or when you were fighting Chase. You looked really happy when you were actually attacking him. It made me really mad. So, yeah, I guess I am jealous. I thought that if I became evil, you would see that I was dedicated. I thought we could be together against everyone else."
She was glaring up at him now, standing inches away from the young man. He was beginning to look a little nervous at her close proximity and his face had gone from faintly pink to almost red. A wicked grin spread across her face and she leaned up to his ear. "You're insane." Her lips brushed his cheek in a taunting kiss and Jiayi quickly stepped away from him, continuing on down the path. "Hurry up. I'm getting hungry."
He stood there for a moment, still blushing, and finally shook his head. Jogging to catch up to her, he grabbed her arm. "You can't just kiss a guy and run off like that! What was that about?!" A look in her eyes instantly told him. There was evil pumping rapidly through her veins. Raimundo frowned down at her, curious about what might happen. "When was the last time you had that soup?"
"Hm…been a while. Why do you ask? Do you think I'll become a tiger and eat you up?" Jiayi licked her lips and swayed her hips back and forth. "Don't tell me…do you like me more when I have evil running through my veins?"
He did not want to admit it to her face, but she did seem slightly more attractive when she was being wicked. Remembering how she licked blood from her fingers, he shivered. "What if I do? What are you going to do about it? Does that make you mad?"
"Should I be mad?" Her eyes shone with mischief and she stepped away, pulling her arm free. Would Dashi have reacted that way? Would Dashi look at me the way that Raimundo is now? Just thinking the man's name ignited her fury and she tilted her head. Her grin was truly evil as she looked up at Raimundo. "If we fought, and I mean really fought, you would defeat me and act disappointed. Just like he did. You would turn away without even looking at me. You would call me a monster."
"I wouldn't do that!" Raimundo protested.
"You…don't know what you would do if you were in that situation. Hannibal told me that I would be loved. He promised me that my plan would work. I remember him saying that it would work. And do you know what happened? I failed miserably and tried to tear my body apart with my own claws. And when I failed at that too, Guan brought me back to the light. Do you know what it feels like? To fight against your own blood? Your own, tainted, evil blood? It makes me want to do bad things constantly and I'm always telling myself that I'll be okay. That I can fight it. What if the day comes when I can't fight it anymore? It will consume me like a disease. Guan will be the first one I go after. And then Chase Young. And then…you. Because you…will be the final person that could stop me. So tell me…how does it feel? Now that you know that you will inevitably probably kill me. Kill me to save the rest of the world. How does it feel to know that you will need to kill someone you're so fond of?" She winced when he tightly grabbed her by the upper arm.
Raimundo's expression was stern, his mouth turned down at the corners and brow furrowed. "That's not going to happen."
"How can you promise me that?" she challenged him.
"Because if you turn evil, I'll follow you. And if you turn good, I'll follow you."
She licked her sharp canine teeth, watching him blush. "Oh yeah? Why? Because you love me or something? You know how I feel about Jack. That isn't going to change any time soon. Even if he leaves me, I'll still love him. I just happen to be that pathetic."
His grip tightened. "Look, even if you don't like me that way, I'll follow you. I want to protect you. That's just how it is. That's just how it's going to be. Always."
The girl snorted and the evil seemed to recede from her eyes. She pulled out of his hold with effort and smiled genuinely. "You know…you sound an awful lot like Guan when you say things like that."
They walked in silence for a long while, both lost in their own thoughts. He was watching her as they moved down the path, observing her movements. Her hips swayed in that semi-seductive manner, but by this point he knew it was unintentional. The girl's dark blue hair hung loosely down her back and her pale pink lips parted as she nervously bit a thumbnail. She was thinking about the temple and Guan. Her thoughts quickly shifted to her need for soup. Without it, the evil in her veins would grow stronger and eventually consume her. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she wondered what it would feel like to be evil again. Pushing that thought away, she shook her head.
"Have you ever wondered if Guan is using you?" The words made the girl look at him with a raised eyebrow, anger flaring in her eyes. Raimundo frowned. "No, I mean…think about it. Hannibal Roy Bean made you immortal so you would be like Chase Young and so he could try to control Chase Young by using you. Right? I don't know what his plan was. Like, was he going to use you as some kind of reward for him or what? But what if Guan is doing the same thing? What if he kept you a secret from Chase all this time so he could bring you out at the right time and make Chase weaker? Or try to control him the same way?"
She stiffened in irritation and crossed her arms. "He…wouldn't do that though." Her tone held uncertainty and it made her even angrier. What if he's right though? It would make sense, wouldn't it? Chase wouldn't know about me. He forgot about even seeing me when I first turned evil. So he might have forgotten about me in general or even thought I was dead all these years. What if Guan was going to just bring me in front of him one day and use me as incentive to convert him back to the Xiaolin side? Her nails dug into her arms through her jacket sleeves and she gritted her teeth. "Guan…wouldn't do that," she tried to say firmly. Her voice came out in just above a whisper. "He just wanted to keep me safe…right?"
"You never thought about it that way?" Raimundo came up beside her, hesitantly putting a hand on her shoulder. It was clear that she was hurt by the notion. After all, she had spent centuries with Guan. She trusted him more than anyone else. "It probably isn't like that though. I mean, Guan's a good guy."
"Even 'good guys' sometimes use people," she stated in a dark tone. "What would you do if that was the case?"
He jumped a little when she met his gaze, tears forming in her amber eyes. "M-me? Like, as myself or if I was you?"
"If you were you. Answer that one first."
The young man glanced up and down the path. Seeing no one, he cautiously wrapped an arm around the immortal girl. "I guess I'd protect you from Guan." To his surprise, she did not pull away from his hold. She did not glare at him or growl at him to let go.
The tears rolled down her cheeks and she felt her evilness spike. "I…want to tear him apart. I don't even know if your theory is true and I want to dismember him." She lifted shaking hands, staring as her nails lengthened into claws. "…I don't like this…feeling this way…Raimundo, I don't want to be evil. I really don't. I want to be good and help people. I don't want to hurt anyone. Not if they're innocent. But I can feel it growing inside of me…and I'm afraid that I won't be able to control it."
Raimundo pulled her so her front was pressed against his and held onto her tightly. She was trembling and he could feel a tightness in his chest. It hurt him to see her in such pain. "What do you want to do? I won't make you go back to the temple if you don't want to."
"I-I need to get Lao Mang Lone Soup before I completely lose control."
"Okay so where can I get that?"
She let her forehead rest against his shoulder, trying to ignore the way his fingertips traced along her spine. "…Guan…he usually brings me some and I don't know where he gets it…so you would need to find him…but I can't see him right now…not like this…"
Raimundo tried to think of what to do now. Leaving her alone was not an option. Leaving her at the temple might make her feel worse. She might hurt someone or someone might hurt her. He could imagine Chase Young finding her there in this condition and taking her back to his lair. "Are you angry?" She pulled away enough to give him a curious look. "Guan might have been using this whole time, but you know Hannibal Roy Bean was. This whole time, he was planning to use you like some kind of reward for Chase doing what he wanted, right? Like you're not even a person. Just a prize. And aren't you mad at Chase for trapping Jack and trying to kill him? You know he would have let Jack die. And aren't you mad at Jack for making you leave his house?"
Jiayi scowled up at him, tears still falling from her eyes. "Just what are you trying to accomplish here?" she growled.
"Who are angriest with? It's Chase, right? He's the easiest to be mad at right now, isn't he?" He saw the rage growing in her snarl and he smirked. "Don't you want to tear out Chase's heart?" She nodded once. Raimundo leaned down to wipe the tears from her eyes and grinned. "Alright. So why don't we kill two birds with one stone?"
"What are you talking about? I can't kill him. Killing…isn't right."
"No, but you can take out all your anger on him while I get you some Lao Mang Lone Soup, right? And as soon as I get it, we'll get out of there. Does that sound okay?" He saw worry in her eyes and smiled. "I promise I won't let you turn evil. I promise, okay? And I won't let him corrupt you. I'll protect you, okay?"
"F-fine…if it's our only option…" Despite her agreement, she still looked very reluctant.
His smile grew. "Hey. Remember that look on his face when you called him 'scrublord'?" This made her smile and it was almost enough to ease his worries.