Hello all and welcome to my latest piece of work. This story has been on the back burner for quite some time and reading the latest evil jade stories and brought it to the front.

As with, I'm assuming, everyone on this site I do not own any characters that we know and love.

Hope you enjoy

The Tenth Tribe

Chapter: 1

Just One of Those Days

Magic by its very nature is an unknown form of energy that can be controlled as easily as hiding the sun; the further away from the source, the less effort it takes to cover. It is the opposite of science, logical thinking and order; it is chaos at its purest form. Mankind can use chaos to both help and hinder, to build and to destroy; but no matter how you use it, it is still chaos.

One of the biggest problems with dealing with magic is that it is almost impossible to remove it all. There will always be a trace of magic lingering on an object affected by magic; or a person. Just like every damaged limb leaves a twinge, every magical influence leaves a 'gift'.

Jade Chan was once was over energetic but still normal girl; or as normal as a girl can get with parents that are never around because they are too busy working or going to elitist gatherings. Then, because of her school suggesting that Jade be more stimulated at home, and because her parents were too busy to handle the schools request, she met her uncle Jackie Chan. Very quickly after the meeting Jade Chan was still as energetic as ever, but had knowledge of magic and demons. Real live demons and real magic; thanks to this knowledge she could never be normal again.

Throughout her adventures with her uncle she was exposed to magic time and time again, be it through accidental or self inflicted exposure; and this in turn leads us to our story. You see magic has been known to leave parting gifts, for lack of a better term.

Thanks to her direct exposure to the talismans of Shendu, thanks to her short time as T-girl; her speed, strength and endurance have all improved thanks to the rabbit, ox and dog talismans. Due to her time as a half cat creature her grace, agility and stealth have been raised higher than most people would only dream of reaching. Accidentally turning herself into a giant, changed her adult height from the high 4' low 5' mark, as both her parents are around that height; to a much more average, at least in the western world, mid to high 5' range.

These are just some of the things that have happened to Jade Chan on her adventures, but the ones that will make a significant change to her life are of course the darker spells and aspects of magic.

Primarily all her exposure to the Shadowkhan, first becoming the queen of an entire legion of Shadowkhan, and then wearing half a Oni mask has lead to the developments that started an avalanche of events that changed her life beyond her control.

A week had passed since her 12th birthday and her day was not starting out as well as she would have wanted. Granted she's a night person and the only time the day starts as she wants it is when she's allowed to sleep in as late as she wants; but even that never happens thanks to her uncles and Tohru. But even by the normal school day for her today was turning out to be just one of those days.

First she got woken up by her alarm clock, followed by Toru before she finally wakes up enough to get out of bed with help from her uncle Jackie. While she will admit that her alarm clock not waking her is a normal event for her, she dose usually get up by the second wakening, be it Toru or Jackie. To make matters worse she felt small pounding deep within her head; it wasn't really painful, but it was an irritation.

After getting out of bed she finds that there is only a little hot water left allowing her a smaller shower than she would have liked. It also meant that she had to brush her teeth with cold water, and while not a real obstacle, at this point already in the morning she was taking even the smallest discomfort as the end of the world. And it only seemed to get worse.

She may have grown up a bit but she still favoured her traditional tomboy look with semi loose jeans and orange hoodie. It was just her luck that her favourite cloths where still very wet from yesterdays rains. Almost growling in frustration she empties her drawers before finally settling for an all black look.

She got a sliver of a smile when she finds that Toru made her favourite breakfast for her and it was sitting on the table waiting for her. As nice as the different American breakfasts can be, for her there was nothing better than to start the day with a nice hot bowl of congee, she even smiled a little when she saw that she actually had time to enjoy it before her mad dash to school. Shame she didn't have the rabbit talisman on hand.

Throughout her day, the only enjoyable thing was the distant memory of her breakfast. Her lessons seemed more of a bore than she remembered and by the time lunch had rolled around the pounder in her head had replaced his fists with a sledgehammer. To make matters worse her friend Drew had decided to reminisce on past times and started teasing her about her magic ninjas. If it wasn't for her martial arts discipline she would have hit him square in the face minuets ago; as it was her fuse managed to hold out till the bell rang, if only barely.

The remainder of the day went even slower if it was possible and by the time the final bell of the day had rung she had managed to gather both additional homework and a detention thanks to the lack of attention she was giving in class. Her walk home was uneventful, until it started raining when she was half way home. The rain was coming down very hard and very fast. It wasn't producing puddles in the streets but actual rivers in the blink on an eye, and the rain was obstructing her sight badly enough that she had trouble seeing what was happening 100 meters in front of her.

Being closer to home than anywhere else she'd like to be, Jade gathered her wits and bolted in the direction of Uncles Rare Finds, forgoing covering her head with her bag because she was already soaked to the bone and the less time she spent in the rain the better in her eyes. She dodged other people as if they were going in slow motion and she even managed to catch the crossing points while they were flashing and before the motorists had started them up again.

However by the time she got home she could tell she had a fever and her friendly construction worker in her head had found the ignition switch for a jack hammer and was happily working away. She felt terrible and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep for an eternity.

The shop was deserted and she guessed that her uncles and Toru and been called to section 13 or something, and she was about to go upstairs and get some sleep, when the phone rang. Thinking that it was Jackie letting her know where they where she picked it up only to hear that it wasn't anyone she knew, and the man on the other side kept asking her questions about the stock of the shop and the prices that they where, almost like he was looking through a catalogue and not believing the prices for some reason or another.

It took her over 5 minutes of trying politely get him to hand up before her temper got the best of him and she simply hung up. By now she felt her nose beginning to run a little, so she ignored the phone as it tried to get her attention again and simply went up to her room and, after removing everything that was wet, cuddled in between her covers wanting to get some rest.

Though she managed to get to sleep easily enough her dreams were anything but restful. Her dreams contained images of a woman with thick long black hair that reached a little above her thighs. She seemed quite tall with long legs and a slim waist. She was wearing what appeared to be a traditional Hakama outfit. She had black slippers on her feet; the long skirt/trousers were black as well as her top. The ends of the long sleeves as well as the trimming of the trousers and the bottom of the top were red, trying to give some other colour on this otherwise completely black outfit.

While the woman's beauty was something to behold and the outfit quite a focus to Jade, it was what she saw of the person's eyes and skin that drew the most attention.

Her skin, well from what she could see, with so little being displayed was a pale blue, a scarily similar pale blue to the skin of the Shadowkhan. Her eyes were not the traditional red however; they actually looked like eyes, admittedly cat eyes but still, eyes. If there was anything surrounding this person it was covered in an impenetrable darkness, and though Jade could make out all the details of said person as well; she could not make out what it was that this person was trying to say. Her mouth was moving and her eyes seemed to be fixed on Jades, but no sound came out of the woman's mouth.

As strange and draining as this dream was Jade felt like she had to make contact with this person. It wasn't anything that she could confirm, almost intuition that was screaming at her to make contact with this person standing in front of her. So gathering up her courage she started to run towards the woman standing before her. It felt like she was running, it felt like she as running quite fast; but as hard as she tried she never seemed to reach her.

The woman in front of her started to become blurry as Jade tried harder and harder to reach her. And then something unexpected happened. She felt as if someone was trying to push her shoulder out of its socket. The force that was being applied to her shoulder would never manage such a feat, but all the same the sudden application of pressure on her shoulder in a motion similar to that of the water of the sea caused Jade to lose all focus on what she was doing.

Slowly she opened her eyes and found her uncle Jackie shaking her shoulder trying to get her to wake up.

"Jade come on, if you sleep any longer you won't get to sleep at a decent hour tonight" slowly Jade started to sit up in bed until her friendly road constructor decided to start up his equipment again. She slumped back into her pillow and managed a weak "headache" to let her uncle know what was wrong.

Frowning slightly, Jackie felt his nieces head and was surprised to find that it was indeed quite warm. He couldn't remember the last time when Jade was ill, and seeing her like this now was quite worrisome. Accepting the excuse to stay in bed, Jackie informed her that he would bring her up some dinner later and if she was still feeling under the weather then that she would be staying home from school the next day. Sighing with relief Jade snuggled back under the covers and before anyone knew it Jade was back to sleep.

Finding herself floating in darkness, Jade saw that the same woman as before was standing in front of her, but she appeared blurry, like she was seeing her through a mist or something. But she could tell that something had changed. The person standing in front of her was almost screaming at her like its life depended on Jade to reach her.

Stealing herself Jade started to run towards this person that seemed to be both a complete stranger and somewhat familiar.

Meanwhile down stairs Tohru felt a slight tingle go down his spine; like he was feeling a faint piece of dark magic. However when he looked over to his chi magic teacher, he saw that uncle hadn't flinched in the slightest.

This confused Tohru. Even though he had passed his apprenticeship with his master, he was still a novice compared to the wisdom that sat before him reading an ancient tome while taking a sip of tea every so often.

Believing that if his master hadn't picked up on anything then there was nothing to pick up and that he must have imagined it and that he was looking too much into it. This belief made the choice of allowing the thought slip out of his mind as he went back to the text that he was doing research on. How he was going to wish he had chosen to investigate the spike in dark chi rather than rely on his sensei, then things would have turned out very different.

Back in Jades dream land and she was finally making some progress of reaching the woman in front of her. The woman seemed almost distressed with her calling to Jade; because that was exactly what she was doing. Jade was now close enough to hear a soft voice calling to her, telling her to hurry or all would be lost. This just spurred Jade on.

The soft voice Jade was hearing was strange, it sounded soft and almost caring. However, you could hear the faint touch of malice behind the lure. Like a knife being thrown through the air; if you listen closely you could just make out the razor-sharp edge slice through the air before it impacts into you and severs your soul from your body.

Jade didn't care about the malice, a strong part of her reassured her that this person in front of her would not do anything to harm her, and would in fact look out for her and try to make her every wish a reality.

Like a policeman wanting to protect the public. Like a loyal dog looking after his master. Like a faithful employee wanting to do his best for their manager. Like a soldier looking after their country. Like a general protecting her queen.

By the time this thought passed through Jades head, she had already reached out to the woman standing in front of her and their hands touched. Instantly, Jade felt different. She felt as if the locks on a cell door had started to come undone. Like the beginning of a journey; she has taken the first step and found it very rewarding making her want to finish with all due haste.

But even with this surge of emotions she could tell that this path was a one way street and she was now stuck on it with no way off until the next junction. And Jade could not see a sign post telling her when that could be.

The woman standing before Jade smiled down at their joint hands before her

"Finally you have reached me and on the final day as well. The final day before your young body starts the metamorphic process all living things go though and becomes the body of a young lady; the final day where my own magic was able to hide within the sea of your own. Without this meeting I would have been lost to the tides of your chi and we would have never met. My name is Yami and I am the general of the 10th Oni tribe; my queen."

Jade just blinked at this strange woman kneeling before her. What did she mean queen? When had Jade ever wanted to be royalty? She was never the princess, even when she was little. She was always the adventurer. The only time that she could remember calling herself royalty of any sort was when she was being influenced by the Shadowkhan.

Lightning struck her. Oni; wasn't that another name for Shadowkhan? How could she have forgotten something that big? She could remember her time as the queen very vividly and the things she had done still cause her to have nightmares. She told her family that she couldn't remember what happened when she was the queen. But she could.

Oh she could remember exactly what she made some of the Shadowkhan do while she had control over them; just the mere thought sent shivers down her spine. But she couldn't tell what those shivers were supposed to mean. She knew it was suppose to be of disgust, and they were; or at least a part of it was. But she also knew that her shivers from the memories were also more than that. They held excitement. They held fascination. 'God, did they even hold pleasure?' She couldn't answer herself, and that scared her more than a positive answer.

She wanted, no needed, to talk to this woman, this Shadowkhan more; but she could hear something knocking and notice the world shift a little as she started to gain consciousness. Yami just smiled though, sensing Jades distress.

"Fear not. Now that you have found me, I cannot become lost. Go and join the land of the living; I shall still be here to answer questions, before we start your lessons"

"Lessons?" Jade asked as beams of light started to appear from the blackness. She could now vaguely make out the sound of her door being opened. "Yes Lessons. To teach you on what you are becoming and what it will entail" Yami said as she rose from her knee and gave a final bow before she was lost to the light.

"Oh dear, you fever hasn't improved at all." Jade heard as she opened her eyes. The pressure of her uncle's hand left her forehead not soon after, as she tried to sit up. However she just felt exhausted.

"No, you stay in bed Jade. I'll bring you up some supper, and you won't be going to school tomorrow ether. I don't like how sudden this has come on; if you're not better by lunch time I'm going to take you to the doctors." Jackie confirmed more to himself than anyone, as he quickly left to fetch some food for Jade.

Jade took the sudden quiet as a chance to sort through what she just found out. She was now talking to a new Oni general, and from that could deduce that she was likely to become queen again. What scared her though was the lack of reaction to this revelation. She got a bigger reaction when she heard the rain on her window. What was she suppose think about this? What was she going to do about it as well? Could she hide it from her family; and if so for how long before they discovered? Weeks? Year's maybe?

Should she run away from them, to try and protect them? At least she could answer this one; if she ran, they would hunt with all the resources of section 13 and magic that they could muster. And with her capture cure her again. But could they cure her? Did she even want them too if they could?

Before she could continue with that thought however Jackie came back into her room carrying a bowl.

"Jade when you feel better remember to thank Tohru he made you some more congee. We all know how much you like it and it should be a lot nicer to you than a big heavy meal. He'd have brought it up himself but he is working very hard at the moment" Jackie said as he placed the bowl and a spoon onto her night stand.

What was left unsaid was exactly what Tohru was working on. The family was hiding it in the hope that Jade would not get upset over it; but she already knew. Tohru was in the process of choosing an apprentice; and her name was not on the list.

Apparently to complete his training and become a master he had to take on an apprentice and pass on the knowledge that he had learnt during his time as an apprentice. Once uncle has seen that Tohru can do this sufficiently, then he will become a master.

She found out, quite by accident when she was minding the shop by command from uncle. She was just straightening some stock on the shelves when the phone went off. Picking it up she was surprised to hear a man ask for sensei Tohru.

She felt the tip of a dagger at her heart as she asked the man why he wanted to speak to Tohru. His reply of training in the mystical arts was all that was needed to set off the knife. As plainly as she could she told the man that Tohru was out and to call back tomorrow before putting the phone down.

They had lied to her. She had gotten a promise out of both uncle and Tohru that she would get to be his first apprentice. That she had an incredible gift in magic and that it would be a shame to waste it.

But they also said that it would be many, many years before Tohru would be able to train an apprentice. Likely not until she finished high school. She had gotten the promise out of them that she would be his very first apprentice, but she had to show that she wanted it. She had to improve her grades and not to get into trouble at school.

She had met their demand. Ever since that day, about a year and a half ago, not a single complaint had come to her relatives and her current average grade is at A-. Considering that before she was an average C it's a hudge improvement. Heck the only reason that she is at A- and not a full A was because of one stupid history question; that was so a trick question, no matter what her teachers say.

She had even confirmed with her relatives a year ago if she was proving herself. At the time she was a B student, but Tohru said that she was. That if she stayed above C level she would be his first apprentice.

She didn't cry over it; she wanted to, but the pain of betrayal was too much for her to even cry it out. She wanted to confront them, but she couldn't bring herself to hear the truth from their mouths.

They had lied to her. They promised and then lied to her when she was trying so hard for them. She never forgave them, but kept her studies up; both to hide the fact she knew and to keep her mind away from the hurt.

Remembering this made her loose her appetite. She turned from the dish and brought herself into a meditative state to try and regain control of her emotions.

The only one who had kept a portion of his promise was Jackie. At least he taught her up to an intermediate level of kung fu before he stopped. He had said that she needed to achieve the required discipline before he taught her anymore; and the only way to achieve it was through meditation.

She hated meditation at first, and to a point she still did. But now she knew of the advantages of meditation; how she found it easier to focus both the body and the mind through it. Meditation is one of the big reasons why she is doing so well at school. The mental focus helps her remember things better.

Slipping into the rhythm it did not take her long to clear her mind. She almost lost it just as quickly when she heard a feminine voice speak to her.

"I see you know meditation, my queen. This will quicken your training quite significantly as mastering meditating as much as you have would have been my most time consuming lesion." Yami said from the shadows of Jades mind. Before Jade could complain to her to leave her alone, she actually felt the mental presence of the Shadowkhan general leave. Finally alone Jade continued her exercise in peace.

Hope you enjoyed the start of my latest project, and bear with me as I get up to scratch writing again. Any feed back at all will be much appreciated and thanks in advance for it.

Until next time!