Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The very moment the smell of the forest became more than vaguely familiar Clay should've know to expect something bad was going to happen.
A forest was supposed to smell like pine and juicy leaves, like mud and decay, wet bark and fungi, all wet and cool.
Dark and scary, but only slightly, with all sort of noises coming from every direction. Chirping birds and leaves whispering as the slightest push of wind moved the thick foliage, crunch of the dry twigs under the soles of his shoes as he was taking a step forward.

However it was silent and disturbingly so: while there were dried out leaves and twigs on the ground, they all were so damp it was muting the sound of them moving around.

The air was chill, carrying a surprising amount of bite considering how all the snow around was already gone, but also something else, something disturbingly familiar. There was an one of a kind smell to it, the one that had a nasty tendency to stick to the back of the throat for hours after swallowing it only once, the one that tasted like a handful of pennies. 
It could mean only one thing and for a kid raised on a beef farm it wasn't a very hard riddle to solve

Clay furrowed his brow and looked around; there should be some sort of scavengers nearby, waiting for their turn to fill their bellies.
There should be and yet the forest was eerily quiet: no birds cawking and circling over some place, no small scavengers rushing through the foliage, no warning grunts of the bigger hunters. Nothing.

"Hey man, you cool?" Raimundo looked at him over his shoulder.

It seemed that while lost in thought, Clay lagged behind the group.

"All is right," he reassured his friend, even as the uneasy feeling was wrapping its nasty fingers around his stomach and squeezing.

Something was going to happen and the anticipation was making it oh so much worse.

"Try to keep up!" Raimundo cheerfully reminded him. "We're on the job here!"

"Will sure do!" Clay replied mechanically, mind whirling.

He kicked at a nearby bush, more to try and scare a hiding critters than to destroy the poor, dry shrub.
Nothing came out, but he noticed that there something was there, hidden in the shadows beneath the tangled twigs and thin branches.

It looked like an old rag, grey and matted, but...rags usually weren't coming with legs sticking out at awkward angles.
Under further inspection, Clay managed to locate where the head was; halfway hidden under the almost unrecognizable wing.

Clay furrowed his brow further. Just what could kill a bird in a way that made it look like it took a spin in the washing machine?
It was too far in the wilds for it to be a victim of kids being vicious and dumb. So what else could...?

The trip came to an end as the group stopped by the entrance of a cave.
It was dark, looked deep and it was reeking.

Clay winced. The smell will sure stay with him for a while, heavy, oily and coppery. Not to mention, the taste. It already felt like it got stuck to his teeth and the back of the tongue.

"So, the Shen Gong Wu is inside?" Kimiko asked, raising an eyebrow all the way up to the edge of her colorful hat. It was made of tiny strings of wool, all of them creating a complicated pattern that probably meant something but Clay wasn't able to figure out.

"Yep, definitely!" Dojo enthusiastically nodded. "Or at least it smells like it's inside!"

"If this is how a Shen Gong Wu smells like than man, I'm glad I'm not you!" Raimundo  grimaced and pulled his scarf further up his face.

"This is not the first animal cave we have entered in our quest!" Omi vigorously declared, determined to ignore the stench. "As the Chosen Ones we need to be ready to face all sorts of challenges!"

“Go on into the dark cave then, kids!” Dojo stretched and flew up, just to stop on a nearby branch. “I need to regenerate for awhile.”

“What, you scared of the dark?” Raimundo snickered.

“No!” The dragon hissed like an angry cat. “But I was doing all the flying and carrying! No way I'm going to do your job!”

"Um..." Clay raised his hand, not sure what he was supposed to say.

"What is so challenging about a cave, pal?"

"It is dark!" Omi instantly replied. "It is a perfect training!"

"Um..." Clay opened his mouth, but once again, he was too late. Omi already shot forward, fearless, enthusiastic and pretty damn oblivious.

"Aaand into the dark cave he went," Kimiko sighed heavily. "Anyone got a torch?"

"What, you don't want him to amusingly stumble around for a lil' bit?" Raimundo grinned.

"I already have records of all you dorks blindly stumbling round," Kimiko deadpanned. "And besides, this is not the place. He might step in something-"

A scream came out of the cave, ghastly and surreal, bouncing off the stone and repeating itself over and over again.

"What the-!" Kimiko gasped. "Omi!"

She shot forward, jumping right into the darkness, her fists shining with flickering tongues of fire as the magic reacted to her distress.

In any different situation Clay would sigh heavily, because really, his friends were sometimes such brats.

“Dojo, get ready to transform and get us out of here,” Clay said.

The dragon furrowed brow, but decided against arguing and simply nodded, suddenly serious and wary.

Clay's friends were such brats and that was the reason why he had to follow them down the creepy cave that smelled way too much like beef farm right before the grill season.

"Well, this really sucks," Raimundo said, entering the cave right next to him.

It was pitch-black inside and the only source of light were the flickering dim flames somewhere further in, the ones that Kimiko brought to life.

Clay nodded and carefully moved forward, trying to concentrate on anything but the smell; if he thought it reeked on the outside, than he had no words how to describe how it smelled now.
It was just like childhood now, miserably strong and nauseating, leaving little to nothing for the imagination.
Even the sound of his steps, in heavy winter gear, wasn't all that different. One wouldn't put the good shoes for a dirty job after all.

Something akin to a miserable sob echoed through the cave and Clay clenched his jaw and picked up the pace.

"Hey!" Raimundo hissed, grabbing his arm. "Wait! We should get ready."

"If there was something dangerous up front, then we would be able to hear our friends kicking its bottocks, partner."

"You sure?"

"Kimiko is very good at kicking bottocks."

"True," Raimundo decided and let go of him.

He still was tense like a string, ready to jump at the shadows, but it couldn't be helped.

The first thing that caught Clay's eyes were those little crystals that decorated Kimiko's gloves and shoes. In the dim, flickering light they shone like stars.

Clay looked further up and saw her face twisted in the expression of pure horror, wide blue eyes jumping between Omi - head in his hands, whole body shaking like a leaf, small whimpers escaping his mouth - and a shape on the ground.

"Ohmy-" Raimundo choked and covered his mouth, Chinese replaced with a litany of curses in his native language.

When Clay looked down, Jack Spicer looked back at him with bloodshed, glassy eyes, pupils blown and uneven.
His face was locked in an expression of sheer terror, with mouth open and blood drying on his teeth.
One of his hand was twisted unnaturally  right below the elbow and the fabric of the sleeve was torn, so something whitish - definitely not skin - was peeking through.

The cloak was shredded even more around the chest area. The cloak and the flesh below and Clay was so, so glad that the light was flickering and dim, because he could swear there were bones peeking through the bloody mess.

"Out," Clay said. The words felt like a sandpaper when they were coming out of his throat. "We need to get out."

Omi, slowly, mechanically, turned his head.

"But," he stuttered, eyes huge and dark. "He, ah- we!"

"Out," Clay repeated, putting a bit more force behind the word, making sure that he sounded as calm and collected as it was humanly possible.

"Yeah," Kimoko somehow managed to get out of her stupor. "That's... that's a great idea. Great."

The cold air on the outside, the brown-grey mudded ground, the winter sky, it all felt like the best thing that even happened in their life.

Raimundo leaned against the nearest tree, forehead and right hand resting on the bark, while Kimiko was just standing at the entrance, stiff as a board, her hands still vaguely on fire.
And Omi... Omi was looking down at the ground, at his own footsteps.

They were tainted red, a flash of bright color, impossible to miss.

Clay winced. When he darted into the cave on his own, in the complete darkness he probably found the body in the worst way possible and the bloody marks were like an absolute proof of it.

Omi eyes widened and then he choked, covering his mouth. Tears were streaming down his face, now pasty and slightly greenish.
The little monk darted towards the bushes, shoulders already shaking as he tried to fight off the nausea. He somehow managed to hide behind the three, before he lost the battle and vomited.

Raimundo bit his lip, eyeing the tree and then turned around, determined to ignore this miserable moment of weakness.

“Kids, what…” Dojo started with a worried frown, but the words died somewhere in the middle of the sentence.

The dragon looked between their grim face, his confusion quickly morphing into a worried grimace.

“It’s S- It's Jack,” Clay quietly said. He wanted to use the last name, just like he always did, but somehow, it felt wrong. “He's there. It's not pretty.”

Dojo frowned, but hundreds years of experience helped him fill the blanks. He lowered his head and sighed.

“I didn't want you to face something like that so quickly,” his voice was so low, Clay barely could make out what the dragon was saying.

“You expected us to face… that at some point,” he stated.

“Power is tempting,” Dojo sighed again. “Sometimes… too tempting. There was Chase Young and after him - countless of others.”

Too true. Shame nobody cared to mention that before they started the training, before they got so deep into this life it would be naughty impossible to just leave. Not now, not with enemies like Chase and Wuya and the rest of them.

"We can't just leave him like that," Clay sighed, eyeing the cave where they found Spicer. Jack was just a kid, annoying and kind of dumb, lively and determined and so, so didn't deserve to just like there, on the cold stone, all alone.

"Yeah, it wouldn't be nice thing to do," Dojo nodded. "But how do you plan to…?"

There was another nasty and rather violent sound coming from the bushes.
Clay closed his eyes. The image of dead body was like imprinted on the inside of his eyelids and will stay there for a long time. They couldn't just pick him.

"I reckon Omi is untransportable as well," Clay grimaced. "Can you go back on your own? To get blankets or something else we  could wrap him in?"

"Are you sure you kids will be fine on your own?"

"We have to," Clay said. "You definitely wouldn't like to fly with Omi on top right now. And Kimiko took it rather badly too, they need time. And if whatever killed Jack comes back... I don't think we at our highest moment right now. I just want to risk anything.We can't split the group now."

Dojo groaned. Clay was telling the truth, his young dragons right now were really messed up. Taking one out of the combination would equal to risking lives or the whole group, simply because their most powerful techniques - the ones that could save their skin in any situation - required the whole team.

"I'll be back as soon as possible, I promise!" he said, already growing up, to get things done as soon as possible.

"Yeah, I know you do," Clay smiled, but it not reached his eyes.

Dojo leaped high into the air and Clay observed him for a little while, trying to find some sort of comfort in familiar sight. The first time he saw the dragon flying up in the sky, he was completely amazed by it. It was magic. Pure, absolute magic and it was really there, as real as the ground under his feet.

Even after all the time he spend in the temple, he still loved to look at his scaly friend flying, even more that he loved looking at the world from the dragon backs. But now, it didn't work. Maybe because he knew why Dojo was flying or maybe because something got broken on the inside when he set his eyes on the mangled body. Either way, he felt just terrible.

The noises in the bushes finally stopped, so Clay decided to investigate.

Omi genuinely liked Jack and always saw a friend in him, even if time after time he was screaming his lungs out at Spicer about most humiliating defeat. To suddenly see him like that…

Omi was the dumb, sheltered kid, the one that enjoyed playing the role of a brave hero and fighting, but who didn't manage to grasp everything that such role included. And now the world slapped him in the face, sucker punched him in the most vicious, most brutal way, in one swift motion riding off his childish innocence.

"You better, partner?" he asked softly.

"No," Omi sighed. "But I have nothing more to be sick with."

That wasn't the thing Clay wanted to hear at all. But at least Omi was able to speak in whole sentences again, even if he still looked like hell, face ashen with dark rings under his reddened eyes. That had to count for something.

"Why something like that happened?" Omi voice creaked. Clay grimaced with sympathy. After throwing up for so long his throat surely was sore and raw.

"I can't answer that," Clay sighed. "Sometimes bad things just happen. And there is nothing we can do about it."

"But that was... it was just unfair! He didn't do anything!"

"Life is… it isn't fair. Sometimes it's nice and fun and sometimes, something terrible happens just because it can.”

Finding the words was hard, keeping his face calm was even harder.

"It is stupid!" Omi screamed, tears and snot once again covering his face. "It is stupid, stupid, stupid!"

It was and Clay felt like screaming too.

He kept his mouth shut and simply put his hand on Omi's shoulder, not sure what else could be done.

xxx

Dojo came back with Master Fung and some other monk on his back. Clay was unable to recognize the man. He never was all that good with faces, and fighting back tears made everything much more difficult. But he had a kind face - old and wrinkled, with ridiculously long eyebrows and big, meaty nose - and kind was the exact thing Jack needed right now.

The man bowed to them - most of the monks at the temple were bowing to them - but it felt like a different sort of a bow. Clay couldn't really put his finger on it, but he felt grateful nonetheless. He bowed right back, tipping his hat; it definitely wasn't a traditional thing to do, but it felt right.

The monks entered the cave without hesitation, each one carrying a bad. Clay looked away. He didn't want to know what was inside, because then he would start thinking about how such an item could be used and then-

The rest needed someone to look strong for them. Because otherwise they could break at any moment and they didn't even know if whatever killed Jack was going to come back.
Through he doubted that -whatever it was - killed because it was hungry. There was just too much... around. It was a wrong sort of messy for this to be a job of a predator, even a startled one.

Dojo landed on his shoulder. Slick, warm scales slid against Clay's skin, as the dragon moved around, searching for the most comfortable spot to sit on.

"You kids fine?"

"I'm more concerned about you," Clay murmured quietly. "That's quite a lot of flying going on. You sure you don't need to rest?"

"I'm good," Dojo said quickly. "Really, I am."

"There are at least two round more," Clay warned him.

"Two?" Dojo furrowed his red brow.

"You always say that we weight a lot," Clay pointed out.

The dragon made a painful groan and looked to the side with something that looked almost like emberassment.

"That's just me annoying you for the sake of being annoying," he admitted. "Besides, osteoporosis. The old guys really don't weigh that much!"

"If you say so," Clay exhaled slowly.

That solved at least one of the problems they were currently facing. About most of them, Clay preferred to not to think right now; who cared about the missing Shen Gong Wu in a situation like that?
There will be time for that, much, much later, when they are back home.

When there was time to fly back to the temple, Clay immediately put himself between the old monks - and the thing they were carrying, tightly wrapped in thick sheets - and his teammates, his awkwardly big, bulky statue serving as a perfect shield.

xxx

Like any place inhabited by a handful of teenagers, the temple was usually loud, ringing with the bickering, phone rings and beeps and peeps coming from a gaming console.
There were dull thumps as someone was hitting the practice dummies, click and clack of dishes being cleaned, an accidental explosion or two when someone picked a Wu and it misfired.

The silence, suddenly filling up all the empty spaces, drowning the corridors and rooms, looming over the training grounds, it felt wrong. It was surreal, like they were dumped into some sort of a twisted another universe, it was just like the world felt like when you hit your head too hard.

Kimiko played with her phone, flipping it open just to close it again, just to kill the silence.

That and procrastinating. there were things that desperately needed to be done, but her brain just keep on doing that thing. Just ten minutes more, just the next hour - but not now, now is the lunchtime and they just shouldn't - and maybe wait a little bit more because...

Kimiko sighed heavily and looked up.

Omi was curled into a smallest ball she ever saw in the corner of the common area instead of his room. He probably didn't want to be alone, but didn't want to actually hang out with people, so he figured out a compromise of sorts.

Not that the other boys felt very social at the moment; Clay already produced a small mountain of wooden chips and splinters as he kept carving his way through the firewood pile.

Raimundo was sitting in the other corner, grim like a storm cloud. It looked like he was thinking about ten thousands things at once.
Then he noticed her gaze and looked back up.

"Do we even know what killed him?" Raimundo asked quietly, not breaking the eye-contact.

"We don't even know what he was doing in that cave in the first place," Clay shook his head.

"We were looking for Shen Gong Wu..." Omi mumbled from his corner.

They were trying to be quiet, but in that overwhelming silence it was too difficult.

"It wasn't even there," Kimiko agreed bitterly.

Jack was definitely racing them for the Shen Gong Wu, just like he usual did.

“Do you guys think it could be… you know,” Raimundo swallowed. “Chase Young?”

“No!” Omi screamed, jumping to his feet, hands balled up in fists and an expression of pure determination on his wet face. “He wouldn’t do that! He never would do such a thing!”

“Omi, partner, I know you like to believe there’s good in people no matter who they are but Chase is evil,” Clay carefully said, putting away his knife and the small wooden sculpture he was working on.

“Being evil does not mean running around and killing people! Especially when they are on the same side!”

“Besides, Chase wouldn’t just go after Jack,” Kimiko added. “It would be… below him, I think?”

Chase Young usually did all he could to avoid people, especially Jack Spicer, who annoyed him to no end.

“Yeah,” Dojo nodded. “He definitely didn’t like him, but  there is nothing to gain from something like that and much to lose.”

“What do you mean?” Raimundo eyed the dragon.

“Well, we all know that Chase got a thing for pushing Omi towards evil,” Dojo shrugged and nested himself comfortably on the pile of firewood Clay didn't managed to cut to pieces yet. “But Omi wouldn’t go anywhere near a murderer, especially if he killed somebody Omi knew well.“

Not that Chase even demonstrated the will to kill; he preferred to turn defeated enemies into cats... if they were good enough for his tastes.

"We should go to Jack's house," Kimiko sighed heavily. "We might find some sort of a clue there."

"Uh," Raimundo winced. "I don't think... I mean, his family... you wanna you go there, be like hi, my condolences, can we go through all the shit your dead kid keeps in the basement?"

Kimiko winced. It was making them sound like horrible people, alright. But they needed to know what had happened and why. Just what sort of a Wu was worth killing for?

"I tried to call, but nobody picked up," Kimiko admitted. "And it isn't something you should tell people over the phone anyway."

"Yeah," Raimundo said quietly, looking down at his hands.

Kimiko switched her phone open and closed it, her fingers moving without asking her brain for a permission.

Clay was eyeing the pile of firewood Dojo was still sitting on.

Raimundo ran fingers through his hair using both of his hands with a groan.

"This is it!" Omi jumped to his feet and wiped his face with a sleeve. It didn't do much for his reddened eyes, puffy cheeks and the traces of salt, but at least he was up again. "We are going there and we are going to find things and then we are going to put things in their places!"

"I..." Raimundo raised an eyebrow. "I'm actually okay with that."

xxx

It was probably some sort of an illusory thing, the what is in the black and white picture sort of a thing, but the mansion where Jack lived appeared much, much bigger than usual. Maybe it was because they were climbing up the stairs towards the front doors and not creeping by the finely cut bushes towards the basement windows at the backs.

Maybe because it was empty, without the constant buzz of robots flying back and forth, patrolling or doing whatever Jack decided that needed to be done at the moment.
The doors alone looked intimidating, made from dark wood, heavy and much higher than necessary, like someone expected giants to pay a visit. With every step Kimiko was starting to feel more and more uneasy, because the building seemed to be growing.

It was probably the anticipation, Kimiko decided.
They came here to talk to Jack's family and, she couldn't even imagine...
But it wasn't something she could just mail them about and be done with it. Nobody deserved to learn about this stuff like that.

"How people can even live in places like that?" Raimundo murmured, rubbing his arm. "You gonna need a goddamn map to find the loo!"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous!" Kimiko hissed at him.

"Yeah, sorry" he sighed, hand still travelling up and down his elbow. "Not a good time."

Kimiko sighed deeply. Raimundo was as nervous as she felt and he was simply trying to get rid of the tension. Dumb jokes were his usual go-to solution for everything that was going wrong; if he could laugh at it, it wasn't so terrible, right?

She herself preferred to punch things, to set them on fire, to scream and then punch some more, but for now, she needed to keep it all in check, locked tightly on the back of her mind, while the monk part of her psyche, the one that was great at logic and cold calculation and that could rob people blind while doing business took over.

She swallowed and then knocked against the rich, wooden surface.

It was hard enough to make her knuckles hurt a little, it was real, it all was truly happening, nothing of it was one terrible dream.
Nervously swallowing again, Kimiko raised her chin and waited, staring right forward, but the doors did not open.
There wasn't even any sound coming from the inside. No footsteps, no buzz of a machine, nothing. She waited a bit, then knocked again, and then again, but silence was the only respond she received.

"Nobody's in?" Raimundo blinked. "That's odd."

"I don't know about that," Clay slightly grimaced. "Every time we dropped in for something there was just Jack. Well, at least when we showed up to pick a fight."

Kimiko hummed. That was making sense. She was sure that Jack was simply messing with them when he wouldn't risk being caught, but now...

"So, we have failed even at this?" Omi murmured, lowering his eyes..

Raimundo shook his head."We still need to know, what happened. It's... I don't know where else to start looking for some answers."

"I'm not so sure, breaking in is a bit much, considering..."

Kimiko sighed and closed her eyes, thinking.

"We need to get in," she finally decided. "Even if we get caught, we really need the data that could be on his computer."

Then she turned and looked at her friends, a burning sensation behind her eyes. She hoped it was determination. "Think about it, there could be some new danger and we don't know nothing!"

"He wasn't exactly a fighter..." Raimundo bit his lips.

"But he wasn't your random kid on the street either," Clay huffed. "Seriously, compare him to any kid you knew before."

Jack wasn't able to keep up with them, but he wasn't training for hours every day, he wasn't chosen by some higher power to keep the world safe. He was also more or less aware of that fact, figuring out dozen different ways to even the field.
Traps, lies and robots - stronger and harder, complicated and in many different shapes. Compared to the usual teen, Jack was really one of a kind.

"Yeah, you're right," Raimundo closed his eyes and sighed. "I think I'm biased, or something. You know, all the showdowns and stuff, not enough hanging out with normal people..."

They circled the building, looking for the  familiar window near the part of the mansion where Jack's evil lair was located. Not a single robot popped out of the woodworks to welcome them with a chainsaw or something like that, not a single trap was activated with a familiar, angry beep.

Even when they pried open the window, even when they entered the building.

And inside...

The robots were inside, standing in neat rows next to the wall, silent and still, more like creepy statues made of steel than something that could come to life at any moment.
Some of them were covered with sheets, the others were only half-way built, lacking arms or legs or both, with lots of colorful wires sticking out in random directions.

"Woah!" Raimundo blinked. "I never knew there was so many of these guys!"

"Yeah," Clay nodded, poking at one of the robots with curiosity. Usually these things were trying to hit them, so none of them had a chance to really look at the bots before. "When they're not moving or anything... it's not like we ever cared to actually count them or anything."

Kimiko just ignored the robots, trying to concentrate on their mission.

It just felt wrong, going through somebody's else stuff like that. They did that before, sure, many times. But before Jack could call them on that, could protect his possessions, could scream and argue and send his metal army to chase them away.
She ventured further into the basement, passing by the rows of robots and peeking behind the corner, where once the time-machine was standing. It wasn't there anymore, destroyed long time ago, but most of the machines and computers were still on, like  Jack expected to be back at any minute.
The electricity was humming loudly, filling her ears with a familiar buzz. It was more like she was standing in some kind of a lab or a factory and not just a enormously big  basement.
And she wasn't the only one.

All too familiar man was standing by the console of one of the computers with his back to her, long, black hair falling down all the way to his waist, armor reflecting the artificial light like a mirror.

“Chase Young!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 2
Meetings

During the relatively short time of his restored activity in the outside world, Chase Young learned how to ignore Jack Spicer out of sheer necessity. There was simply no way to make obnoxious teenager go away. No matter what he did and how hard he tried, Spicer seemed to just become more and more stubborn.

The only way to not go crazy because of all that noise the child created was either to tune him down or murder him. Chase didn't  like to make a mess inside his own home; the smell of blood was lasting for weeks, the stains were biting deep into the stone, marking the pristine surfaces with ugly, brown stains - and this was exactly the place Spicer happened most often to him - so Chase decided to stick with the first option and simply pay no mind to the boy and his antics.

So when the idiot showed up again, Chase just ignored him and concentrated on following his daily routine to a T, in hope that silent treatment would shoo away the pesky child sooner than later. It usually did the trick.

Not this time trough. Jack just keep on following Chase wherever he went. And he wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it. Usually he was sneaking from one dark corner to another, keeping his distance,  perfectly aware that Chase spotted him the moment he entered.

This time subtle went straight out of the window. Spicer was following him like some sort of a puppy, not even paying attention to his surroundings.  He was about to walk into a table and Chase braced himself for the incoming ruckus with a heavy, defeated sigh. Just two more steps and all the items on it would hit the ground, one...

What

Chase blinked, not sure if what he just saw was some sort of illusion or a new electronic toy of the so called boy–genius.
What Chase Young was sure of was the fact that he just saw Spicer walk through the table. Not fly above it, not crawl under it. Just walk through, like the table wasn’t even there.

But that was just plain impossible. There should be a thud of body hitting the hard, wooden surface! Chase shook his head.

Were his eyes lying to him? His eyesight in his beast form wasn’t the best thing in the world, designed to hunt, to spot movement. But while human, Chase had pretty good eyes. No way he would make such mistake, no way he would fell victim to such ridiculous optical illusion!

There was a slight possibility that Spicer walked around the table, close enough to touch it… But that didn’t make sense at all, Chase narrowed his brows.

There should be a noise and yet the only thing Chase was heard were his own steps. Spicer was so easy to spot because he was always making a lot of noise. Every step of his was awkward and heavy in these ridiculous boots of his with the thick, rubber soles and leather that was creaking from time to time. The facthe was moving way too much, like he was unable to hold still for a few seconds, wasn’t helping any. But now – there was only silence. Has Spicer finally learned something about stealth?

Chase wrinkled his nose. About time to do so.

However there were other things that actually made him felt uneasy. Because not only sounds had disappeared. Even in human skin, Chase’s sense of smell was extraordinary. And yet, he was unable to tell that Spicer entered the room at all. There should be odor of grease and machines around Spicer, like he just finished tinkering with these machines of his. Leather and rubber had specific smells too, foreign in his citadel, impossible to miss. No mention the smell of sun–screen, oily and artificial, unpleasantly sticking to the back of his throat. Spicer always smelled like sun–screen. Like lots of it. There was no way both he and his cat warriors would miss the stench. Not every single one of them.

Might be some kind of a  new technology, Chase decided. Spicer always was clever with these toys of his and this time he just created something actually useful. As far as he knew he could be just followed by the newest robot of Spicer. The boy already created machines that looked like him, more than once. But the machines were usually keeping their distance  the same way Spicer did. Carefully eyeing him from behind the corner, not strolling after Chase no more than ten feet away. It was beyond irritating.

"What is your problem, worm?!" Chase barked, turning towards Spicer in one quick move. It should scare the kid away – a robot, or not. Instead, there was surprise on Spicer’s face. Surprise that quickly turned in gleeful, wide smile and the kid moved towards him, reaching…

Chase was about to hit him, growl, or just teleport him to some random place, preferably far away. But all the anger suddenly disappear. Because Jack’s hand went straight through him. And Chase didn't feel a thing. They stood there for one silent moment, just staring at each other. That and more - he could clearly see what Jack should be by all means obscuring from his view by standing where he was standing. And yet.

"You can see me?" Jack gasped, still gaping at him with rather stupid expression on his face.

"Yes, I can," Chase managed to get a hold onto himself. This was ridiculous, he was acting ridiculous and the reason for it all was even more silly.

"You sort of acted like anybody else..." Jack mumbled, still staring at him with eyes wide open instead of looking anywhere but up at his face. It was fairly out of character. "I mean, like I'm not really here."

"I was acting like every other day, Spicer" Chase huffed disdainfully.

"You didn't even look my way!"

"That was the point."

"Oh," Jack blinked, then looked back, wrapping arms around himself.

Chase felt like that one tiny muscle on his face started twitching.

At least one of his cat–warriors was eyeing him strangely; bickering with Jack Spicer of all people was definitely not what Chase Young would do out of his own free will and yet here he was.
Well that of he was having a conversation with the thin air, at least according to what the child said.

"What did you do this time?" he finally asked.

"I don't know!"

"You definitely did something," Chase snorted humorless. "Otherwise you wouldn’t be in that situation."

Whatever that situation was. He still was waiting for any sort of an explanation, but it didn’t look like anything of substance was going to show up in the conversation any time soon. Spicer was already getting agitated, limbs flying around, face expression changing five times per second, those ridiculous shoes not making any noise despite the balance being shited over and over again.

"I really don't know!" Jack furiously shook his head. "I just... I don't remember, okay?!"

"That," Chase said slowly. "Looks like a problem."

"Oh, no shit!" Jack huffed. "Of course it is! And I can't even talk to anybody!"

"You're talking to me, worm."

"Well, you're the first one," Jack sighed, shoulders slumbering, backs bending in defeat. "Even your cats can't see me, I think. And I tried to get their attention, really. Even stepped on one or two tails... but guess that don't work all that well now," he waved his hand through a nearest wall to prove his point. It went straight through it.

Chase looked down at the floor and sighed in annoyance. The one good thing that should happen obviously wasn’t happening, the ground excluded from the odd mishappening for whatever reason.

"Indeed, that seems to be somewhat problematic," Chase smirked. "How do you even manage to get yourself into that sort of situations is beyond me."

"It's not like I'm doing it on purpose!"

"Don't make that face at me," Chase hissed.

"Or what?" Jack shrugged. "It's not like you can do anything to me at all!"

"Well, I'm glad you managed to find one positive side in the whole situation," he rolled his eyes. "This is why you decided to come here?"

"No," Jack shook his head. "I just... it's like a big hole in my memory. One moment I was repairing my stuff and then suddenly I'm near your lair, walking through the trees just like that."

"So you decided to just go in anyway..."

"Well, I was already nearby," Spicer shrugged, then chewed on his lip, suddenly looking really unsure. "And I kinda through that... you know, since you managed to give Wuya her body back... you could at least know what happened to me."

"You do know that Wuya isn't exactly a regular human, right?"

"Yeah, I know that, but..."

"Normal humans do not turn into ghosts, Spicer," Chase grimaced slightly. "Through you don't really meet the definition either, If to think about it..."

There wasn’t much normal about this situation in the first place. Death was an explanation that at least made some sense, but in the world of magic and technology it could be something different. An experiment mishap, Shen Gong Wu used incorrectly, ancient curses and spells.
And because of the amnesia - because of course there would be amnesia just to make his life that more difficult - it was naught impossible to tell.

"So... you're saying I'm dead and... and that's it?"

“Were you expecting something else?” Chase snorted. “A Pearl Gates, maybe? An Orchestra?”

“I don’t know!” Jack shook his head. “Something! A set of instructions would be nice!”

“Death definitely is nothing like some new electronic gadget of yours,” he commented dryly.

For some reason that was exactly the thing he was supposed not to say. The words caused rather sudden and unexpected reaction. A loud one too. Chase sighed and observed the crying ghost for a moment, hoping that Jack would eventually stop on his own. It took him longer than that. Tears were travelling down his cheeks, then falling down and disappearing somewhere between the boy and floor.

Well, Chase thought. At least he will be not leaving a mess. But the whining was getting irritating and there was no way to turn it off. Well, at least not among the usual ones. He tested that with Wuya already. Not possible to toss away something that was not corporeal.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Chase finally hissed. "Would you stop making noise already?!"

Jack only sniffed. "I really don't want to be dead!"

"This is a surprisingly popular opinion among people. And it does not matter a slightest bit."

"But I'm still here!" the kid protested. "It just... it can't be it! I can't just float around and... well, basically it's all I can do now. This really sucks!"

Chase groaned.

"Can you stop talking sometime around now?"

“No!” Jack shouted. Then stomped. It wasn’t working to its full effects since there was no thumping noise when not–material heavy shoe hit the ground, but still. Jack Spicer was having a temper tantrum in front of the evil overlord and was mostly screaming at the evil overlord in question. And there was no way to punish him for such behavior.

"Fine!" Chase hissed. He was angry. There was no choice and he hated being put in a situation where he wasn’t able to choose his own path. But the faster he was going to dealt with the trouble Spicer managed to get himself into, the faster his world would be back to its normal state. "For whatever reason, you seem to be even more irritating dead than alive!"

"You're saying... are you going to help me?" Jack blinked, completely surprised. And finally, finally stopping that awful moaning. The silence was glorious.

"I'm going to help my own sanity," Chase grimaced. "I'm not sure how long I would be able to stand you without being driven mad."

"Hey! I'm not that bad!"

"I'm going to try to find a way to bring you back. Or exorcise you, that could work too."

"Seriously? You will do that for me?" Jack was staring at him with surprised expression on his face and huge, already – again! – watering eyes.

"Will you go away if I don't?" Chase rolled his eyes.

"Well..."Jack chewed on his lip and blinking a few times. "You're kinda the only one who can see me..."

That answered the question quite neatly. He could be stuck with the ghost (another one!) for long, long time or he could be stuck with the ghost for awhile, till the moment he would be able to find a way to bring the kid back. Or annihilate him. The last one was preferable, but he sort of promised to help him, not destroy. Even Jack Spicer had his uses and it would be irritating to look for other source. Not to mention, Chase could actually find somebody worse than Spicer and wasn’t that a scary thought?

"So?" Jack asked, shifting his weight from one foot to another, tip–toeing in one place. Even after death he was unable to stay still. "What are you planning? You are going to call upon some super epic powers and magic me back to life or something?"

"Magic do not work like that," he exhaled deeply thinking why in the heavens the universe hated him so much he found himself in this situation.

"Oh," Jacks shoulders slumbered.

"You should know that," Chase snorted. "After using the Shen Gong Wu for such long time..."

"But they didn't come with a lot of rules," Jack shrugged.

Chase raised eyebrow.

"You know, just pick it up and it's doing the thing you want it to do... Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because," Chase said slowly. "You sound like you're breaking a whole set of rules and  are, for some unexplained reason, still alive to tell the tale. Well, not exactly at the moment..."

"Oh har har," Jack pouted.

"I am not making fun of you, Spicer. The Shen Gong wu should not work like that at all."

"Well, it's easier when you said its name out loud, but..." he shrugged. "I mean, if you actually needed a PhD to use those things, there would be less people able to wave them around, right?"

"Actually..."

"No, seriously?" Jack stared. "Then how in the hell PandaBubba was able to use them? Or Vlad?"

"Apparently the world is full of surprises," Chase sighed. Surprises and people so insane even the death preferred to keep the distance.

There was a small temptation in the back of his head, a little voice of curiosity,a vague idea of picking Jacks mind some more about how exactly he was using the Shen Gong Wu. Chase would like to understand just how a completely untrained individual was able to tap into the ancient powers without burning himself to a crisp.

"So... what are you going to do?"

"First, I need to find a reason why are you in this state,” Chase stated. “ Without it I would be unable to find  way to counter it."

"Okay," Jack nodded. "That actually makes sense."

He almost sounded like he was disappointed.

"You expected something else?"

"Well, we are talking about magic here..." he made a vague motion with his hands like it was supposed to mean something.

"Magic is not much different from science. It just speaks another language."

"Yeah," Jack snorted. "And breaks the laws of physics on a whim."

"And only thanks to that you're actually able to speak with me," Chase chuckled. Spicer was surprisingly bearable when not trying to woo him. Either that or it was the madness setting in.

"Not that I'm not grateful or something, but this just doesn’t make any sense to me. At all.”

"Just because you do not know how something works-"

"Yeah, yeah," Jack cut in. "I know the drill. I just prefer to have all the data."

"And that’s exactly what you won’t get anytime soon" Chase smiled slightly. "Is there something you do remember?"

"I told you before," Jack sighed. "Nothing. One big, blank space in my brain. "

"Then we probably should start searching from the start," Chase made a decision.

"Meaning?"

"You usually need to wall out of your house to do something stupid, right?"

"I'm not..." Jack started, then just inhaled deeply, deciding that arguing wouldn’t help him. "That's a pretty good idea."

"They why aren't you there?" Chase quirked an eyebrow.

"Uh,  and doing what exactly? It's not like I can actually touch stuff or something!" Jack puffed up in anger.

"Didn’t it occur to you to try and  find something that would trigger your memory?" Chase mused. “Or an item lying around you could’ve accidentally trigger?”

"I don't actually leave Wu related stuff just lying around," Jack huffed. "Not after the monks and Ashley started regularly breaking in."

"Yes. And these password of yours are ridiculous."

"That's actually the idea," he shrugged. "I prefer to have my walls still standing and in one piece. I doubt that the xiaolin losers would just walk away if they couldn't open the safe in the more traditional way, right?"

"So you have stupid passwords on purpose?"

"I actually have two different access codes," Jack shrugged. "One for them, and one for me. The first one is also turning on the cameras around, so I will know where to go to steal my stuff back. To think of it… we probably should check the security footage first, even if just to exclude the monks. And there should be notes about what I was researching at the moment... "

Chase raised eyebrow. That was actually pretty clever. And definitely saving time, considering how long it would take to rebuild all of the destroyed stuff.

"Well, you would be handy anyways," Chase decided. "That is your house, after all.”

Teleporting to the mansion went uneventful, surprising both of them. It should be more tricky to teleport a ghost, but the universe was cooperating with them for once.

That, Chase was sure, could be rather bad thing. Because misery loved company and when things were going down, they all were going down all at once. No exceptions. But everything seemed to be fine. They were alone in the building and the machines were working like they were supposed to, humming, things inside of them moving. The computer also responded neatly and turn itself on without any sort of troubles. Then Chase looked down at the keyboard and then back at Spicer and again back at the keyboard.

“Why,” he asked slowly. “The letters are in wrong order?”

Jack blinked, raised both eyebrows and exhaled loudly.

“Oh, dear…”

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: Following The Trail

Kimiko knew Jack had a beef with many villains over a lot of things, from ridiculously petty to a few thing on the more serious side, so she wasn’t exactly surprised that someone managed to notice his disappearance and use the chance to raid the basement.

However ff all people, Kimiko didn't expect Chase Young to be the one.  He was standing in front of the computer with his backs to her, doing... something. And  growling from time to time at the screen, like he was trying to strike fear in the machine.

For a moment she was just standing still, partially because his presence here shocked her and partially because it was just hilarious to observe how the evil overlord tried and failed modern technology.

He was pressing one button at the keyboard at the time and then spending a lot of time looking for the next letter, finger hovering over the symbols as he was reading them. It was like grandma first meeting with an iPhone. A total disaster.

"Why am I even doing it?!" Chase groaned and hit the desk he was standing by. Only slightly, because breaking it while using a computer was a really bad idea and he seemed to understand it even in his anger.

Kimiko managed not to snort.

"What are you doing here?" she asked instead. She walked towards him, speaking loud enough for the boys to hear her with ease, trying hard to keep her face aloof. Facing frustrated ancient warriors alone definitely wasn't on her to-do list for any time soon.

"I would like to ask you the same question," Chase turned towards her, hissing words through his teeth, his features closed in rather nasty grimace. The artificial light wasn’t doing him any favors, casting deep shadows and making him look tired as if he was just a mere mortal.

"I'm looking for something," Kimiko said, hoping she sounded cold, not scared.

"In someone’s else home?" Chase raised eyebrow.

"You don't seem to have a problem with it either!" she barked back in an instant.

That short conversation gave the rest of the monks enough time to catch up to them and now she wasn't alone. Through, after a moment of consideration, it could be a better idea to keep the conversation between her and Chase in hushed tones.

Because of Omi, who stopped right in front of Heylin warrior, pointing his finger at the man. "Chase Young! Were you the one who killed Jack Spicer?!"

That definitely was the wrong way to start any conversation, no mention the ones you had to have with a way stronger enemy. Kimiko could carry one without much of a problem, but the boys… the boys wouldn’t recognize tact if it came up and kick them in the butt.

"And what makes you think I did it?" Luckily, Chase merely smiled.

"Oh!" Omi's eyed widened. "So you do know! Then I am sure! Every villain is to return to the place of his crime!"

Raimundo grimaced. "That's... well, the sense is still there."

"It doesn't seem like Spicer died here," Chase commented, completely ignoring the fact that he was just accused of murder.

Kimiko narrowed eyes. "How do you even know that he's dead anyway?"

"He told me," Chase shrugged.

"He told you," she blinked repeating after him. Was it the ancient chinese getting in the way and causing a miscommunication? Should she pull out her trusty PDA and search for a better translation?

"A shame.” The ancient warrior grimaced. ”You all seem to be unable to  see or hear him."

"What on Earth are you talking about?"

"For some unexplained reason I have the ability to interact with his ghost, while the rest of the world seems to be oblivious to his presence," Chase explained as his grimace darkened.

"You're joking!" Raimundo spitted out before he managed to bit his tongue.

"Do I look like I am joking?"

"Well..." Kimiko chewed on her lip. "You wouldn't get near his computer on your own, right? There's simply no reason for you to do so."

"Thank you!" he nodded in her direction, through his voice was soaking with sarcasm.

"So," Clay said slowly. "If he's really there he can at least tell us what killed him, right?"

"That is a part of the reason why I am here," Chase rolled his eyes. "Apparently he is unable to recall that particular event."

Clay blinked. "Huh. It actually makes sense if you think about it."

"What do you mean?"

"We found his body," the cowboy sighed. "And it... and the place where we found him... that wasn't the prettiest sight."

"I am unable to tell where are you going with that sentence."

"Sometimes people are forgetting the traumatic events in their life. It's like the brain is blocking the memories as a self-defense mechanism, to not go crazy,” Clay added, hoping it would be enough for the ancient warrior to understand. He highly doubted that thousand years ago anybody really cared about stuff like posttraumatic stress disorders and other kinds of trauma.

"That could make sense," Chase furrowed eyebrows. "But what is the point of blocking anything if you are already dead?"

"It's psychology, it isn’t logical. Emotions usually aren’t."

"So, we're looking for the same thing," Raimundo tilted his head to the side.

"Indeed we are," Chase nodded slightly. "Though I do not see how could you be of any help if you are unable to communicate with Spicer."

"We know where the body is and we could show you where we found it," Kimiko shrugged. "Besides, I can write way faster than you do."

Chase grimaced. "Placement of the letters doesn't make slightest sense."

"It actually does, there was a long study about which characters are the most used… buuut you are not interested in the slightest," she smiled slightly. "So? Truce?"

"Everything to get him away as soon as possible."

There definitely was story behind this heavy groan, but none of the monks dared to ask.

xxx

As the monks promised, Chase was led to the place where Jack Spicer met his end. Only one of the monks was there to show him the place, which seemed to be an unwise move on their part. They were enemies after all and they definitely should be wary, especially when dealing with somebody as powerful as Young. Even the dragon decided against joining, clearly feeling nervous around the one who was known for treating his race as a dinner.

Luckily for the monks, Chase was honorable and was not about to stab them in the back, even if they threw a chance to do so right at him. It became a little more understandable as they approached the place where the murder took the place. Even so far away from the cave - monks told him a bit already -  he was able to recognize the smell.

"You should not shield your friends from things like that," he said out loud, sending rather disapproving look towards Clay.

The cowboy blinked. "Excuse me, what?"

"The sight of blood is quite usual thing to see on the battlefield," Chase continued. "Refusing to accept is as a fact is simply stupid."

"Look, I know you're right and all, but they're just kids."

"Then they need to grow up," he stated coldly. There were things in this world nobody was able to avoid forever and death was one of them. Even somebody immortal like Chase Young had his fair share of close meeting with the Grim Reaper. It was usual thing in the battleground, after all. And the Xiaolin Monks were supposed to be warriors, not children. They should learn to accept the unavoidable.

"It's not supposed to work like that, you know," Clay shook his head. "It’s the smell that tipped you off, right?"

"Indeed," Chase nodded. At least this brat was able to connect the dots fast enough.

"I shouldn't be surprised... but that's actually pretty amazing. We're still far from the cave."

"Because Chase is awesome, duh!" Jack screamed, throwing his hands up in the air. He was surprisingly silent for a while now. That at least was understandable. Chase supposed that even he would be at least slightly nervous while approaching scene of his very own death.

"You should keep in mind that I am not a human," he said finally, deciding that was sufficient answer.

The kid through so too or at least decided it would be wiser of him to not anger evil overlord with unnecessary questions. Especially since there was very annoying, invisible ghost somewhere around, haunting that particular overlord.

"We're almost there," he said.

"I can tell," he grimaced. Now the smell of blood was so strong it was hard for him to feel anything else. And there definitely was something, because he felt more on edge than he was in quite some time. Probably since fight with Guan or maybe even something further in the past.

Jack was hovering at his side with troubled expression on his face. "Chase?" he asked in tiny voice. "I don't feel well..."

"You're dead, you can't feel a thing."

Clay looked at him strange, but said nothing.

"Do you think is a good idea for me to go with you guys?" Jack continued on bugging Chase, now clearly looking for a way out.

"Spicer, stop being stupid. There is nothing that can hurt you now!"

"Yea, besides the memories!" The ghost rolled his eyes.

"Unlocking these would be actually truly helpful," Chase snickered.

"They were blocked for a reason!" he protested.

Chase groaned. Oh, how he wished for the kid to be actually alive, just so he could smack him.

"Give him a breather," Clay smiled slightly. "He's terrified enough as he's now."

"I somewhat hoping that he would stop talking from all that stress."

"Hey!" Jack protested.

The cave was silent, dark and smelled like a slaughterhouse even after the body was removed from it hours ago.

Soon after they entered and Clay handed him one of the flashlights he brought. Surprisingly useful tools they were. And with only one button too. The less buttons the better the technology was, at least in Chase’s eyes.

Pretty soon he found the first drops of blood. Following the lead wasn't hard at all. Just few steps later, there was a lot more of it and then a wide smear leading them into the darkness.

"It's looks like he was dragged further inside," Chase mumbled, then knelt next to the blood to examine the ground. He found exactly what he was looking for. "Here he was still somewhat fighting," he said, following the scratched on the dirt with his fingers. "I wouldn't be surprised if there is a fingernail or two somewhere..."

Jack made strange, tiny noise, then turned back and then threw himself forward, like an arrow of some sort.

Chase blinked.

"Something happened?" Clay looked at him.

"Spicer decided to leave," he sighed.

The cowboy just shrugged. "I'm not surprised. You were wandering in rather colorful territory."

"I was just stating a fact," he snorted.

"You definitely were," Clay moved a little, so his flashlight was facing the darkness further inside. "But since we're alone now... yeah, he was dragged further in. And then that thing, whatever it was, threw him on the wall over there."

"I can see that," Chase grimaced slightly. " The place where he landed, too."

It was hard to not spot that one. There was a lot of blood there and not all of it sank in the dirt. The cave was surprisingly wet on itself; the stone walls were shining with moisture, here and there they could even spot puddles of water, some of them reddish and smelling like rotten meat. Maybe even small chunks of the actual meat, the monks suggested pretty clearly that the body was rather troublesome to transport.

"This is not looking like place where world animals were living," he murmured.

The cave, besides Spicers blood, was actually pretty clear, without any sort of den nor there was a single animal bone. Or even human.

"Yeah," the cowboy nodded. "That's actually sort of strange. This is pretty nice spot for something big. You can't find that sort of thing easily..."

Chase tilted his head, turning the babbling off and trying to concentrate on the smells. Then he rolled his eyes and decided it was absolutely pointless. He moved a few steps away from the kid, then called upon his more animalistic form.

Clay gasped, clearly surprised and was observing the whole transformation with wary expression on his face.

"I do not intent to attack you," Chase decided to said, since the tension radiating from him was rather annoying.

"You could said that before you did the thing!"

"Stop being childish," he hissed. "I was unable to catch the smell well enough in my human form."

Clay finally nodded and stepped back, through he still was visibly tense.

Chase decided to simply ignore him completely and concentrate on his task instead.

The smell of blood was ridiculously strong now, but he could at least name the other things that were in this cave recently. He quickly identified the monks - it was easy having one of them on hand - then Spicer himself. He was actually the tricky one, since as opposed to the monks he wasn't high on spending much time in the sun, close to the nature, favoring his dim lab and all these robots. That caused him to smell somewhat metallic and with all that blood around it was hard to tell him apart. On the other hand, it was his blood, so Chase shouldn't be surprised either. More unexpected would be looking for an answer where the Texan monk get hay bay to roll inside of. There was simply no other explanation.

For now he decided to ignore that, same as typical forest smells and deep odor of earth. Slowly circling around the cave, he started looking for the unnatural. It was only a question when he will find something, not if. There were no animals inside the cave, nor anything in the wide radius around it. Animals always knew better how to avoid dangers and any supernatural being definitely counted like the most dangerous thing around.

And that one was big. He blinked. Definitely big and clever. If his theory was right, the things wasn't even planning on eating Spicer. It was masking its own smell with the gore. But for what reason...?

"Did you managed to find what Spicer was looking for?" he asked, trying to piece the whole thing together.

"Well, we wandered in because we were looking for the Shen Gong Wu," Clay scratched his chin. "But there was no way for him to get there before us. We were on a trip and the Wu activated when we were really close."

"And you found a body instead of the Shen Gong Wu," Chase finished.

Clay nodded. "Exactly. And he wasn't uh... warm either."

"With all that blood around it is not surprising," Chase hummed to himself.

"Found anything?"

"Depends. If Spicer somehow winded up here because of the Shen Gong Wu this is not exactly a mystical beast doing."

"What do you mean?"

"That thing clearly was not taking any chances. It was masking it's smell with the blood. And that explain why there isn't any Shen Gong Wu in the cave either.,” Chase theorized. If something was clever enough to spend so much effort on masking it’s tracks, then it could be smart enough to at least suspect how powerful Shen Gong Wu could be and snatch it. “Unless you are not telling me something."

"Like we would lied about something like that," Clay grit his teeth, trying to ignore that awful smirk on Chase’s face. Damned bastard just was pulling his leg. "So, it was intelligent?"

"It could be. Even like that it is hard to tell anything. And I was not exactly familiarizing myself with every single creature on the planet either."

“Shame,” Clay sighed. “But I guess we can’t always get what we wan’t.”

“I think we are done here for now,” Chase finally decided. “We gathered all the possible informations for the moment.”

“Doesn’t seem all that much,” the cowboy mumbled under his nose.

Indeed it wasn’t much, but now Chase had pretty vivid image of “how it happened” and a pretty viable theory on “why”, so the only question left was “what”. And to answer that, he needed to check other sources and probably look at the body too.

"I will look around, thought I doubt there is much to find here," he said finally. Wandering around the cave he could at least look for something that was out of the place, broken or just gave an odd impression.

If the things was as clever as Chase suspected, then it definitely crossed one or two bodies of water just to wash the smell away. It clearly did that particular trick once, so there was no reason to not repeat it, especially if the thing for whatever reason found smell as more troublesome trail than any other things.

Then again, there was no reason to not try to find a thing since he was already in the right place. It would be stupid to not do so. The monk followed him, keeping his distance and trying to track local animals, hoping that would tell him at least something.

“Well, now I’m kinda embarrassed,” Clay admitted after a few moments of wandering around in silence. “Should’ve spotted that there’s no wildlife around here at all…”

Indeed, it was way too quiet. Like animals felt there was something dangerous around here and escaped while they could.

“You think he accidentally awakened something nasty?”

“No,” Chase shook his head. “Cursed ground usually looks way more disturbing than this. Besides, you can actually spot empty nests up in the trees.” Meaning that the wildlife ran for its life pretty recently. Almost like it was forest fire.

“Huh,” Clay scratched his chin. “You’re right. Whatever it was, it scared the hell out of everything else. I think we were too occupied to notice it and Jack wasn’t very good with animals and nature, so he missed all the warning signs…”

So, they were looking for something big, cunning and probably intelligent enough to snatch a Shen Gong Wu, maybe even to use it. Chase liked the whole situation less and less. Mostly, because it was so close to his territory and he truly hated unknown factors hovering over his head.

Not so far away from the cave, there was a lake, partially shielded from the view by tree branches, with shores wrapped in reeds and other plants that preferred to have lots of water around them. The water was surprisingly dark and wasn’t shining all that much in the sunrays that managed to get through leaves. But the terrain around definitely didn’t look like a fen or a peat bog.

“What the…?” Chase mumbled and walked forward the water.

Clay blinked in confusion, but followed. Soon enough, he felt what disturbed the ancient warrior. Yet again, it was the smell. Slightly sweet, nauseating odor of rotting meat and something else, also spoiled.

He coughed, but still followed, almost bumping into Chase when he suddenly stopped dead.

The surface of the lake was covered with fishes. Dead animals were floating in the unmoving water, slowly breaking apart. Blood and pieces of meat polluted the lake enough to keep it from shining and making it almost impossible to see through it, even close to the shore.

“Well,” Chase said slowly. “Now we know where that thing wandered off to…”

Clay gasped, when the warrior picked up one of the dead fishes and tore it in two halves without an effort. Pieces of entrails feel on the ground with quiet splatter.

“How curious,” Chase said, throwing it away after a moment. “It looked like it was cooked alive.”

“What could possibly cook an entire lake?” Clay asked, trying not to gag. The smell was overwhelming and he had no idea, how the other man could ignore it, especially with his enhanced senses.

“For now, I have no idea. But we should look around for some more time, it is possible that it caused similar damage on the foliage,” Chase decided. “Once we find a trail it would be not that difficult to follow it later on, after we learn what we’re dealing with.”

Clay just nodded, happy to move away from the stinky, dead lake. He had enough nightmare fuel as he was.

The next hour or so they spend looking for cooked grass, boiled bushes and other oddities. Well, at first they were searching for burned stuff, but since there was not even slightest evidence of fire anywhere, they switched simply for stuff that was cooked dead. Surprisingly enough, there actually was a trail of plants that were boiled, through quite hard to follow; one minute there was stain of dead grass on the ground, the next the leaves on one of the highest branches were destroyed, including the wood of the branch.

“That’s quite… surreal,” Clay mumbled, kicking at the well cooked berry bush. The leaves and flowers fell down almost immediately and pieces of twigs followed.

“But also rather specific,” Chase shrugged. “Easier to track down.”

“So, you think we can track this thing?”

“Pretty sure.”

"You finished there?" Jack asked quietly, showing up seemingly out of nowhere. Well, at least there was no need to look for him now.

"For this time," he nodded.

"I'm sorry I ran away. I just couldn't..."

Chase closed his eyes and sighed. "I know." The ghost blinked with bewildered expression on his face, staring at Chase like he was seeing him for the first time in his life.

"I was not expecting you to follow us," he decided to admit. It's not like he was lying. Spicer was just a kid and he was not supposed to make all the decisions an adult should face.

Clay send a strange look in his direction.

Well, Chase looked like he was talking to himself. His cats were suspicious too, back home. Especially since he was somewhat irritated back then and was trying to intimidate invisible kid into leaving him alone.

"Spicer decided to join us," Chase murmured loud enough to  let the other kid know. "Anyway, you could do everyone a favor and try to unlock your memories."

Jack grit his teeth. "Don't you think I'm trying? It's not like I have some switch or a button to turn things on and off!"

“Have you ever heard about meditation?”

“I’m not a monk!” Jack protested.

“And thanks heavens for that,” Chase rolled his eyes. “But it could help you concentrate. Not like you have anything else to do…”

“Well, whatever!” He grunted angrily, but as usual, his expression changed in the matter of seconds. ”And did you find there... anything?"

"Yes, and no."

Jack tilted his head. "That's rather strange answer. Care to explain?"

"I still do not know what attacked you nor what were you doing there in the first place," Chase started. "Right now, I have a mere theory and there is need for more information before I would be able confirm anything."

Jack frowned. "Why do I think there is a 'but' somewhere in there?"

"I think it was a murder rather than just attack of an angry animal," he said, not really caring for keeping kids gloves on. Spicer was already dead, there was nothing worse that could possibly happen to him.

"Oh," Jack said with odd expression on his face. "Oh. But... why?"

"That's the problem," Chase grimaced. "The girl might find something useful in that database of yours, but you just happened to hoard all sort of informations, making her task more difficult."

"Well, excuse me for wanting to know what I'm even getting into!" Jack rolled his eyes. "I can tell where is the freshly activated Shen Gong Wu, but not what sort of Wu it is. The legends are surprisingly helpful, you know. I know what they are supposed to do and all."

“And I’m still astonished how in the world you managed to stay alive for so long.”