A/N: Sorry for not posting for some time. I was busy with some personal things related to my fellowship. That has since passed, and I am preparing more stories as we speak. I hope to have a new Batman story soon. Let's continue with KF:TLC for now.

Requiem III: The Search for The Truth

by Bonnie Eagan & Alisa Joaquin

Part 40: Coming Home

The Master made his way down to the level of the temple. He entered a small room from the outside of the hall. It was a private entrance into the temple, away from prying eyes. Inside the place was filled with candles, but these candles were not white, they were black, made with the ashes of the dead. Each candle represented a soul that was bound to the temple, the soul of the Shaolin who lost their lives and whose souls were now imprisoned to the service of the Dark Master of this place.

As the Master entered his sanctuary and prepared to light the necessary candles, he thought upon Tan and how this temple came to be built. Both looked for revenge upon the Caine line. At one point he had discussed his plans of taking revenge on Matthew Caine within the walls of his own temple, but the only way that could be accomplished was if the temple had been rebuilt elsewhere. The Master, at the time, did not have the complete resources to affect such a feat, but Tan had managed it somehow, without his knowledge. Learning what resided in this place after taking over from Tan's death was a stroke of luck for him. And so, what ashes he had collected from the long dead monks and priests, he created the candles. He could feel the souls of this place come alive to guard its remaining stones, unwittingly becoming his slaves in bondage. And with that knowledge, the Master prepared the ritual, calling upon the spirits of the dead to take his revenge, to kill the line of Caine and gain back his family honor, to kill Matthew Caine within all that remained of the Zhang Zhous Temple.

Matthew Caine came down from the catwalk and made his way to the entrance of the temple. So much like his own, he felt a pang of homesickness and sadness enter his soul. So many lives were lost on that day, including the lives of children. Hearing and seeing that his own son's temple had been destroyed had forced him to think of all the temples that existed and how many of them had been destroyed. Over the centuries temples were built only to fall at the hands of tyrants. It always seemed to be a futile gesture, but eventually, the temples would be rebuilt again. Why must there be those who destroy. The temples were places of learning, of healing, not places of war, and yet they always seemed to be the first to fall. Matthew Caine could not help but think upon the words that Master Po had once said to his father, the first Kwai Chang Caine, and he in turn had said to Matthew.

"The temple exists within us. We, you are the temple."

"But can one man be a temple?" Matthew had asked his father.

"So long as one Shaolin remains the temple would always exist."

And so, Matthew continued to believe it, even after the temples were once again rebuilt, and destroyed for what seemed like the last time. China could, would no longer accept the Shaolin, at least the new China that was being formed. There was no room for the old ways, so rather than let them remain in peace, destruction was the path that the new government took, a path that would one day be its downfall. Still, there was a temple that did remain, the temple in California. It became a beacon for all, a beacon that shined and stated, that the Shaolin still endured, but eventually that too was destroyed. Perhaps his father was right after all. The temple wasn't a building, but flesh and blood. And so long as one Shaolin remained alive, the temple remained alive.

As Matthew Caine stepped into the temple and his feet fell upon the stones, his eyes became wide. How was it possible? It just could not be, and yet what he sensed he could not deny it. He wondered if his son had felt the same thing when he had entered this place. Matthew closed his eyes in reverence and stated a silent pray to the Tao. Somehow, Matthew Caine had come home.

Continues with Part 41