Welcome all.

Thanks for the reviews, sorry again for the long wait.

It's always nice to receive feedback 

I really am trying to improve my writing style, so it's nice to hear that the last chapter was a little better than the previous ones.

(sorry again for chapter 4, that was hideous)

This chapter seems to be even longer than the last, I sure hope you think that's a good thing…

Also, would anyone be interesting about taking part as a BETA reader?

I feel that a second view could improve the story somewhat, but if no one's interested then that's OK too.

To any of you who have seen the episode with the shadow of fear, I haven't seen it, nor the ones following it, so my depiction of it is probably way off, sorry about that, but it couldn't be helped.

There was a sly wind picking up over the old town of Whitby, England, a wind as old as the earth, uneasy as it travelled up towards the east cliff.

Upon the cliff top stood the silhouette of the abbey , more beautiful in a state of wild decay than it had ever been whole. The wind, no more than a soft breeze picked its way through the ruins, moving between broken pillars and gaping windows.

The abbey had withstood the salty batterings of the sea and lasted out war, over the years it had become a recognised place of power by the people of Whitby, respected for it's stoic endurance against the damage of mankind, and the more destructive forces of nature.

Deep within the centre of the ruins, in a corner dancing in the shadows, a small patch of grass grew between a gap in the stones.

Slowly, the wild grasses began to part. If one were to listen, the soft sound of tearing roots could be heard as a strange object began to work it's way out of the ground. The object looked foreign to its surroundings, an ancient looking staff, with a dull golden sheen, a strange jaded globe bound onto one end.

Nearby, St. Mary's church chimed midnight, the stark toll echoing around the abbey's landscape.

As the last chime sounded, a dark misty substance began to form inside the globe, giving it an ethereal, violet glow.

Somewhere on the other side of the earth, in a jet speeding over southern India, a low cackle could be heard, often in harmony with an insane, gleeful giggle, as two old witches grew closer to achieving their goal.

Their was an uneasy silence hanging over the motley crew of boys flying north over the pacific ocean, heading off in the opposite direction of the object they should be racing towards.

Each of the boys felt a certain pull on their hearts, the further they went, the worse it became.

As they finally approached land, somewhere over Canada, Dojo made a sleek landing, just between an old pine forest, and a large mansion.

Omi was first to speak, not quite breaking the tension between the boys.

'OK Jack, we came here to get the shen-gong-wu, and only you know where they are, and as the waters of time are running fast-'

'Er Omi, you mean sands of time'

'Yes, yes Clay, as I said, waters of time are running fast, so we need to go now.

It will be doing us no good to stand here making idle chatter when we have something to do, don't you agree?

I for one think so, after all, wasting so much time would inevitably cause Wuya and Zeloth to trigger the apocalypse.'

Omi looked up from his speech, expecting to see some slight signs of obedient guilt on Jack's face, as he absorbed Omi's wise advice.

Instead he was greeted with an empty space.

'Wha? Where-'

Raimundo sighed,

'He went that way, come on Omi, we need to make sure we have most of the shen-gong-wu, just in case Jack is up to something.'

Omi nodded, and the three left Dojo in the gardens, following jack through the back entrance to the mansion, where they found an open trap door, leading down to a tunnel underneath the house.

The three raced down the stairs, and just as they reached the bottom, Jack headed them off, an annoyed expression on his face.

'Hey. Who invited you guys down here?'

He paused, taking time to glare at each of their blank faces.

'As I recall this is my secret lair, and none of you were invited in. Just because were on the same side now doesn't mean I want you losers traipsing around in my private space'

Raimundo spluttered, but before he could object Jack handed them all a few shen-gong-wu each, leaving him with the monkey staff, which he had a strange liking for.

'That's all the shen-gong-wu, you have them, so go, get out of my lair.

I said GO! Don't make me call out the jack-bots.'

Raimundo snorted and rolled his eyes, before racing back up the stairs, shortly followed by an amused Clay and a dancing Omi.

Jack sighed, he had never thought he would see the day when he was bound to that group of dysfunctional idiots, let alone have them traipsing around inside his lair, the only place he was truly comfortable in.

Unfortunately the circumstances had changed, he thought to himself as he raced up the stairs. There is nothing I won't do so I can free myself from these losers.

However doing that also involved somehow freeing Kimiko and saving the world.

Which meant he had no time for perfecting his gloat, and if everything went well, he would need a good one.

The problem was, he had no idea how to go about getting Kimiko back. He was playing confident in front of the others, as if he was organised, knew what he was doing, but he wasn't.

He was still alone in the world and deep inside himself he doubted that he could ever get Kimiko back, he would fail again, and Kimiko would be lost forever.

He wouldn't allow that.

Not when this was all his fault to begin with

He silently swung onto Dojo, behind the others, quickly reverting to his arrogant persona, a bored expression not quite hiding the brooding look in his eyes.

Better to seem egotistical than weak he thought, after all it had worked for the larger part of his life, why should it fail now?

Dojo took off with as much energy as he could muster, after all this could be the decider. Dojo knew they couldn't losing it.

Team morale wasn't exactly at a high period, and if they lost this match, what chance would they have later on?

He picked up speed, a determined frown etched into his reptilian features.

After what had seemed like days flying over endless blue the western coast of Britain appeared through the clouds. A few moments after the coastline appeared on the horizon Dojo began to shudder violently, leaving the others clinging on for dear life as they flew over the moonlit landscape.

'T-t-touchdown folks, it's definitely somewhere close, over by that cliff' shivered Dojo.

He glided down as smoothly as he could manage, glad for the coming period of rest, no matter how uncomfortable the shaking became.

Just before Dojo hit the earth with a quiet sliding sound, the unlikely team jumped off into the grass, eyes already searching for the elusive 'shadow of fear'.

The group split up, each heading for different corners of the ruins, desperately searching for a trinket they had never seen before, without the use Master Fung's scroll, they would have to check the use of the shen-gong-wu when they returned.

Jack's mouth was set into a grim line, he was determined to get this over and done with, hopefully they could find the shen-gong-wu before the witches turned up.

There was something about seeing Kimiko's face twisting into an ugly sneer that made his stomach turn over.

He shook his head, trying to get the image out of his head, when he first heard the telltale sounds of a familiar aircraft.

His heart sank as he turned around, and sure enough, his old jet plane was making a screwball landing in the centre of the ghostly ruins. A perfect setting for a ghostly witch, and a possessed girl to appear.

The ground shook slightly as a battered looking jet plane crashed onto the ground, tearing up the grass as it carried on moving for a few seconds. Nearby crows began to shriek their disapproval of the disturbance to an otherwise silent night.

The cabin door flew open, to reveal Kimiko, or rather Zeloth, as she scrambled out of the door with an insane cackle.

'Looks like we got here just in time for the party' cackled Zeloth, as she began walking - with a slightly drunken stagger – towards Jack.

She pouted.

'Although I think we may have missed the fun part, Jackie here seems to have located the shen-gong-wu without us.'

Jack scowled, and tuned to follow her gaze to several yards behind him, where a glimmer of gold could be seen slowly rising out of the earth. His eyes widened, and after a moments shock, he quickly scrabbled over to the shen-gong-wu, almost tripping over his own feet as he flung himself at the piece, shortly followed by the graceful pounce of Zeloth.

Jack landed on his hands, one of them gripped around the shen-gong-wu, Zeloth only a hair's breadth behind him, also with one hand wrapped over the staff.

There was only one thing for it.

'Zeloth! I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!'

Jack was quick to speak, as he knew he would have the advantage, the ability to choose the challenge.

Zeloth emitted a strange giggle, a twisted look of gleeful hate playing across a stolen face.

'What's this? A challenge? I accept boy, I will take great pleasure in crushing you'

Just to the left of the pair Wuya let out snarl of frustration and shook her head.

The nearby Xiaolin dragons were all sporting the same expression, a small superior smile, perhaps this wasn't going to be so difficult after all?

Jack smirked.

'I am sure I will take great pleasure knowing that you will to be a great disadvantage.

I see you are confused, witch, let me spell it out for you.

You don't get to choose the challenge,

You are in a weakened form in a body you clearly aren't used to yet,

and oh yes, the best of all.'

He took a moment to appreciate the look of anguish on Wuya's face before continuing.

'You have no shen-gong-wu whatsoever.'

Jack smirked as a look of doubt flittered across Kimiko's face, before Zeloth finally realised just what she had agreed to.

'Even better yet,' came Dojo's rough voice from not so far off, 'official rules say you are forbidden to use magic of any kind!'

'IMBECILE! How could you have forgotten the rules? Could you not have WAITED until you figured them OUT?'

A short period of bickering ensued as the two witches expressed their anger.

Jack was pleased that Wuya's wrath was aimed at someone else for once, and after a moments basking he decided to create a suitably unfair task.

'See that wall over there?'

He said, pointing to a nearby wall, three ancient circular windows adorning the higher side of the wall, creating an uneven ledge on the bottom of the highest window.

'First one to scale that wall, and reach the highest window ledge gets the shen-gong-wu'

Such a simple task, if lost, could lose so much. Jack hoped lady luck was cheering for him.

A little wave of the Spicer flag wouldn't hurt.

He looked over to the dragons, looking for assurance that he had done the right thing. He was glad he checked, as the sight of a very pissed off Wuya, a smirking Raimundo, and Clay and Omi both with bright smiles greeted him, even Dojo seemed relieved by his choice.

It was strange to have so many looks of pride directed at him, no matter how mild they were.

He looked back to Zeloth, and grimaced at the look she was putting on Kimiko's face. He recovered himself quickly and brought himself to look back at her.

'Gong yi tampai!'

They both yelled, Jack still not used to hearing such a strange voice coming from Kimiko's mouth.

By god I hope she gets out of this safely.

It was strange, in her absence, Jack could keep thinking up new things that he liked about Kimiko, things he had made subconscious notes on, without ever really noticing.

Nothing particularly deep - he didn't really know he that well – but he missed the look of self-assured confidence on her face.

As he watched the surrounding ruins stretch up skywards he resolved when this was all over, he would get to know Kimiko, and he would make sure to see that confidence back on her face.

He resolved that once it returned no one but he would ever take that look off her face again.

Jack quickly shirked off his trenchcoat and heli-pack after pulling the Monkey staff from his pocket.

He loved his coat, but it would slow him down having to carry all that dead weight around.

He turned to look at his opponent.

Zeloth was looking over the wall, perhaps looking for a fast way up.

The wall itself was no longer flat, it had odd stone edges jutting out of it, along with the occasional Ivy vine and stone pole.

He watched a small smile appear on her face as she looked up at the obstacle before her.
Jack sure hoped that she was just overcome by the impossible nature of the challenge.

She was a witch after all, even unarmed who said she would conform to the rules?
Even if he got the shen-gong-wu by default like that, what use would it be to him when he was dead?

He shook his head to clear out all the thoughts racing around his head. He drew his attention back to the staff in his hand, and as he concentrated on it he felt himself change. The changing itself had never been pleasant, but the tail and fangs were great. The only downside was the annoying cravings for bananas and the occasional flea.

Focusing on the task at hand he cracked his neck and stretched out his wrists before glancing over to Zeloth.

As soon as their eyes met he knew it had begun.
He set off with a flying leap at the wall, his tail immediately curling around a nearby pole.

He swung round the pole and catapulted himself up to the next ledge, and the next, and the next.

It seemed a little too easy. He paused for a second, only to have the outcrop of rock he was standing on suddenly retract into the wall. Luckily there was a pole just beneath him, which he managed to grab hold of.

As soon as he balanced himself he looked above him. All of the stones had started to move, staying out for a few moments before jumping back into the wall. He looked around him, looking for Zeloth, but she couldn't be seen.

He was getting a little tense, things were getting harder.

He glanced back above him, to see Zeloth cackling as she jumped from ledge to ledge, just in time as it flew out of the wall.

Jack was alarmed, how had she got up there so fast? He quickly shook himself out of his stupor and sent himself flying upwards, easily missing two levels of rock, he continued as fast as he could, whilst trying to figure out when the ledges would move.

He was distracted by a cry from above, as he looked up he let out a startled cry and jumped to the left.

Zeloth was falling, she had been hit by one of the rocks that had begun to fall from the sky.

Jack was hit by a vague feeling of déjà vu, someone up there obviously had a dry sense of humour.

He blocked out all his thoughts and centred his attention upwards once more.

Jack had no doubt that Zeloth would be coming back after him soon, he had a feeling she would let herself be hit by falling rocks if it meant that she would catch up.

As the opportune moment arose he took his chance, he jumped up ledge after ledge, shinning up an Ivy vine, and after a few more jumps He heard a gleeful cackle below.

Kimiko's bloodied body was climbing up the rock face, the only thing missing from her expression was a crazy gleam in her eyes, which were dull as stone.

Jack cursed and set off jumping again, taking more risks than he had before, he was knocked off balance only once, where a falling rock grazed his shoulder, his tail came in very handy at moments like those.

As soon as he could see the window ledge, far above him the torrent of rocks came down faster, and heavier. The surrounding conditions only continued to get worse as he continued upwards.

Progress was getting slower and slower, he even found himself diving downwards to avoid the falling rocks.
The rocks had become more varied now, pebbles fell along side boulders as he worked his way up.
Zeloth had caught up with him, he had seen her moving along side him as he dodged the rocks, blood falling from her nose as she jumped. Her movements were getting slower, the injuries were clearly taking their toll.

He was getting closer, the final ledge was just a few levels up.
Jack took a flying leap above him, his tail balancing his flight.
He landed flat on the rock, and made a last jump towards the now shining gold staff, floating within the centre of the window.

He careered forwards, time passed slowly as he hurtled towards his goal.

From what seemed like so far behind him he heard an anguished scream.

He ignored it and stretched out his arm, fingers splayed out ready to grab the staff. He was merely centimetres away when he felt a sharp tug on his shoulder, ruining his jump.

He quickly stretched his out his hand to grab onto the staff as he fell backwards.

Suddenly time sped up again, and he was hurtling towards the ground. The rocks had long since stopped falling, the ledges all retracted, there was nothing left to hold onto. He watched as the tall ruins came down to the ground with him, whatever had happened this showdown was over.

Jack groaned, his head hurt, and he was cold.

He opened his eyes to see an out of focus yellowish globe floating just inches from his face.
He blinked as he tried to focus, and slowly, a pair of eyes came into focus.

Jack screamed.

'WHAT THE HELL?'

He shot up, eyes wide as he looked at what was obviously Omi.

As the rest of his surroundings came into focus, he noticed laughing from behind him.

He craned his neck over to see a smiling Clay, and Raimundo laughing his head off.

Jack growled, NO ONE laughed at Jack Spicer.

Apart from maybe Wuya…

He was about to jump up and attack Raimundo when he realised two things.

He was in huge amounts of pain, and…

The showdown!

His eyes widened as he looked up at Omi.

'What happened? I almost had it then… I got pulled backwards?'

Omi chuckled, 'Yes, it was a rather good technique, perfectly allowed, Dojo said.'

Jack gave Omi a confused look.

'WHAT? What the hell does that mean balloon head?'

Omi corrected him.

'You mean water balloon head!'

Omi cracked up laughing, clearly pleased with himself.

Jack looked at him in disbelief before turning to clay with a desperate look on his face.

'WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?'

Clay smiled 'The little lady…'

He stopped smiling at this, remembering that Zeloth wasn't a little lady at all.

'Zeloth that is, she pulled your shoulder and knocked you off course, you fell off the ledge.'

Jack had a blank look on his face, he stared at clay for a while before speaking slowly.

'Yes. I. was. aware. of. that.' He took his time over each word, just to make sure it sank in with Clay.

He spoke again ' Shen-gong-wu. What. happened.?

Clay smiled lopsidedly.

'Sorry partner, thought you meant the fall, oh right. Yeah, hold on.'

Clay turned around to feel around the grass behind him, it was so damn dark.

'Here ya go, Spicer, I'm thinking you deserve it. That was one hell of a showdown'

He held out the staff to Jack, who stared at it with wide eyes before his shoulders sagged with relief.

He was alerted to the sound of a very familiar screeching rant, he looked around to see an also unconscious Zeloth nearby with Wuya clearly trying to wake her.

He watched as Kimiko's body began to rise, her knees shaking as she did so.

She looked up, a confused expression on her face, but her eyes.

Oh god her eyes.

He stared at Kimiko stunned, her eyes were shining, alive.

What happened?

Had Zeloth left Kimiko's body now it was so damaged?

Kimiko's expression slowly changed, her confused face becoming blank.

The fleeting light left her eyes, leaving them resolute and dead once more.

He stared at Kimiko's face, and Zeloth stared back.

Ah, still here…

I'm so tired, what is happening…

It hurts… why does it hurt?

My head… I feel strange…Am I dreaming?

I can't… can't seem to… wake up…

All I can see… I can't see, but…

There's still… Jack, I remember that day… Something after that… Jack…

But I don't like jack, why…. Jack?

Jack!

I can see!

Why are you looking at me like that? What's happening? What did I do?

Argh…

My head again…

Jack…

Even you are fading away from me now…

So alone here…

There goes the end again. Confused? Perhaps, that will be explained later on.

Reviews feed my muse, now if it were to starve… Well, that would be a shame now wouldn't it?