"Wait, hang on, kid, that's a bad idea." Dojo slithered back, already clamping a hand over his ear as if expecting Maybelline to reach inside and take the Wu herself. "The Emperor Scorpion? Let's not get ahead of ourselves—"

"What does it do?" asked Rio, his eyes now on the Sun Chi Lantern.

His sister kneeled in front of Dojo and flicked the side of his head. More Wu fell out of the dragon's ear and expanded to full size in the snow. He scowled at her, but she ignored him and started digging through the scattered pile. Turning back to Rio, Dojo waved a hand dismissively. "It lets you control all other Shen Gong Wu, but trust me, it's WAY more complicated than—"

"Aha!" Maybelline plucked a metallic scorpion out of the snow, slapped it onto her wrist, and pointed it at the Sun Chi Lantern across the battlefield. "EMPEROR SCORPION!"

Absolutely nothing happened. Wuya glanced at them when she heard the shout, but the Sun Chi Lantern did not budge. Snickering, the witch refocused on Raimundo, who started to sweat at the oncoming stream of green fire.

Nostrils flaring, Rio gawked at his sister. "That was your plan?"

"No, it was not my plan—" Maybelline dropped back into the snow, digging around amongst the Shen Gong Wu again. "It was just worth a shot— Might as well try it—"

"Like I was saying," Dojo said, arms crossed over his tiny chest, "the Emperor Scorpion lets you control Shen Gong Wu, but only when they're sentient. You know, thinking for themselves? It won't do anything against a normal Wu minding its own business. That's why we only used it once: against the Fearsome Four. So unless you're planning to unleash Mala Mala Jong and throw it into this mess, I'd suggest you think of something else!"

While the three bickered, more rock golems started to sprout from the mountainside and stomp toward Omi, Kimiko, and Clay, who still lay panting and helpless in the cold. Raimundo's focus started to waver when he saw the monsters approaching his friends, and Wuya took advantage of the distraction and sent a surge of heat his way. The Eye of Dashi's blast weakened and disintegrated. Raimundo fell back, smacking his head into the rocks beneath him.

Rio gasped and whirled to shout at his sister, "What's the plan?!"

Maybelline snatched something black out of the snow, tucked it under her armpit, and threw the Star Hanabi at her brother. While he flailed his hands to catch it, she yelped, "Distract Wuya! I gotta take out the golems!"

"How are you gonna-?"

"MOVE, Comi!" Clutching the Emperor Scorpion and the odd black object, she took off toward the other three Xiaolin Warriors.

Wuya lifted up the Sun Chi Lantern, where the Xiaolin elements barely flickered. She strolled toward Raimundo, who coughed and tried to roll onto his stomach. Before he could find the strength to stand, a stone hand broke out of the earth and latched onto his ankle. Clutching at his scalded robes, he gritted his teeth at Wuya, who said with a smile, "Maybe burning a traitor alive would be more appropriate than crushing?"

"Star Hanabi!" Rio shouted.

A thin lightning bolt shot across the battlefield… and missed. It passed behind Wuya and smacked into a rock golem, who barely stumbled. The witch blinked and looked up at the boy. "Another little bug? My, you are a quiet one; I didn't even notice you there."

Rio thought he heard a distant, unfamiliar roar further down the mountain, but he ignored it in favor of the closer threat. Limbs shaking, he fired the Star Hanabi again, but Wuya blocked the attack with a rising stone pillar. When she summoned a green fireball on her palm, Dojo sprang out of the way, and Rio jumped into the mess of Shen Gong Wu to grab the nearest one. "Shroud of Shadows!" He tossed it over his body and disappeared.

Wuya's eyebrows lifted. "Leaving so soon?" She twirled a finger, and the snow started to swirl from the ground. Raimundo wrapped his arms over his head as the bitter cold spun like a hurricane in a roar of sound. Shen Gong Wu scattered everywhere. Rio tumbled and rolled, and the Shroud of Shadows blew away. Something bright blue flashed in the corner of his vision, but he was spinning too fast to figure out what it was. By the time the icy storm lifted, Rio lay on his back, dizzy and bruised.

Blinking up at the cloudy sky, Rio heard giant stone feet stomping their way up the mountainside toward him and Wuya. The witch herself did not spare the sources a glance as she walked forward and leaned over him, her red hair messy and tangled from the chaotic wind. "You look just like my little backstabber. A cousin, perhaps?" When Rio clamped his chattering teeth together and didn't answer, she rolled her eyes and lifted up the green fireball again. "Guess it doesn't matter."

"Wuya!" Raimundo shouted, clawing at the stone hand gripping his leg and struggling. Eyes wide and desperate, he threw a rock in her direction, but it missed. "Leave him alone! Your battle is with me!"

"Oho, so you are attached to this runt?" She turned back to Raimundo long enough to give him a wicked grin. "Well then, won't it be fun to watch him fry?"

The thudding footsteps grew louder as the rock creatures came closer. Raimundo yelled, "No, don't! He has nothing to do with this— Fry me instead—!" Then the stone golems stomped into view, and the terror in his eyes faded into confusion.

"Wait your turn," Wuya said, peering down at Rio, whose wide eyes flashed from the fireball in one of her hands to the Sun Chi Lantern in the other. The four elements started to fade within the consuming darkness, but the Wu was still out of Rio's reach. The rock golems formed a tight circle around the two and leaned over them. Rio looked up at them, blinked, and dropped his mouth open.

"You all are supposed to be smearing the monks into the mountainside," Wuya snarled. Snapping her gaze up, she said, "What do you think you're—?" The condescension in her tone fell with a gasp. The golems had turned blue.

Sapphire blue.

A serpentine shadow passed over Wuya, whose eye twitched a bit as she slowly turned around. Leaning high above with its neck in an arch, the Sapphire Dragon growled down at her, teeth bared and tail lashing. Atop its neck sat Maybelline, who smiled and tapped at the glowing Emperor Scorpion on her wrist.

"Now, Sapphire, I know we just met and all." She patted the Sapphire Dragon's head fondly. It snorted in response. "But could you do me a big favor?" With a gleeful grin, she pointed at Wuya. "Crush her."

The Sapphire Dragon gave a quick exhale, and the little green fireball in Wuya's hand blew out. The witch stumbled backwards, tripping over Rio and dropping the Sun Chi Lantern. The Sapphire Dragon roared, and the rock golems stomped after their old master, who scrabbled backwards and summoned a wall of fire to block them. The blue dragon slithered around Rio, ignoring him completely, and the boy grabbed onto the Shen Gong Wu that in a moment of panic, Wuya had finally relinquished. "Sun Chi Lantern!"

The darkness within the lantern disintegrated in the four surging blasts of light. The elements soared into the sky and curved back down to reunite with their chosen monks, who gasped and stumbled to their feet from the surge of renewed strength. The storm subsided as the blackened clouds paled and calmed. The rock golems crumbled, and Wuya's fire shield sizzled and faded.

"No! No, you—" The witch's shout of defiance weakened into a sputter as the Sapphire Dragon lowered its head to meet her eye level.

"I figured you out, Wuya." Maybelline wore a gleeful smile. "You tried to make us think that you're immune to Shen Gong Wu, but you're not. You never were."

"Of course I am!" Wuya spat, muscles absolutely rigid in face of the Sapphire Dragon. "I'm beyond Shen Gong Wu! Your little pet doesn't scare me—" The blue dragon hissed at the word "pet," and the witch gulped.

Maybelline said, "You're beyond some Shen Gong Wu. The Sword of the Storm makes wind. The Orb of Tornami makes water. The Star Hanabi makes fire. Those are the Wu that don't work on you, but it's not because they're Wu; it's because they're tied to elements. You're immune to Xiaolin Dragon elements, which is why Grand Master Dashi invented Shen Gong Wu to fight you in the first place!"

Behind the Sapphire Dragon, the Wudai and Shoku Warriors had braced themselves for another round with their elements at the ready, but at Maybelline's words, they froze and looked at each other. Wuya shook her head and matched the Sapphire Dragon's glare. "Even if any of that were true, why would it make any difference to a puny bug like you?"

"Because I don't have an element." Maybelline leaned forward and grabbed onto the Sapphire Dragon's horns. "But when it comes to Shen Gong Wu, I'm not just good enough. I'm the best there is." She lifted and turned her wrist to show the Emperor Scorpion. "Which is how I found out what this 'puny bug' can do! Sapphire?" She tapped the blue dragon's head and then pointed at their target. "Get her!"

The dragon roared and released a blast of blue energy. Wuya yelped and scrambled out of the way, but without any powers, she had no way to fight back. The blue dragon coiled its neck and lashed out with its fangs. In her efforts to duck, the witch stumbled over a forgotten Shen Gong Wu half-buried in the snow. "Shroud of Shadows!" Tossing the shroud over herself, she disappeared. The Sapphire Dragon swung its tail across the space where she vanished, but she was long gone.

"Leaving so soon?" Rio called with a grin. Maybelline raised her fists and whooped in triumph. Before her brother could set down the Sun Chi Lantern, Raimundo hobbled to him, grabbed him into a hug, and lifted him into the air.

"You did it, little dudes! You sent her packing!"

The Sapphire Dragon lifted its head and roared. The Wudai Warriors limped to Raimundo, who kept grinning when he set Rio back down. Kimiko frowned at the scattered mess of stones and melted snow. Shaking her head, she said, "We were really off our A-game, huh?"

Omi bowed to the girl riding the blue dragon. "Thanks to the valiant effort and quick thinking of our pre-apprentice friends, victory was ours!"

Maybelline beamed and bounced in place, and her sapphire steed grumbled underneath her. Rio shook his head and said, "You guys were gonna take her down eventually. My sister and I didn't grow up in ten thousand years of darkness. That means someone defeated Wuya in the original timeline, too."

His sister scraped the crusty snow off her robes and flung a tiny snowball at him. "Captain Buzzkill, shh, stop ruining my moment."

"Could be a stable time loop," Raimundo said, finger on his chin, "which means the future is safe because you came back to save it."

Maybelline let out a delighted gasp, the Sapphire Dragon grunted, and Rio shrugged. "Dude, I hope so, because otherwise we've created an alternate timeline, which means things will be way different when we go home."

Clay tipped his hat back. "You sure? Y'all were only here for one day."

Rio shook his head again. "Yeah, but the fact that we intervened at all meant that we changed how the battle ended. Butterfly Effect, you know? Even if we hadn't done much, we still—wait." He froze, hands clenching on his hips, and his eyes grew round. "Wait, hold on! THAT'S IT!"

The others jumped, startled at the outcry, and Rio plucked Dojo off the ground. "That's why the scrolls are different from what Master Omi saw, and why you remember two different battles! I can't believe I couldn't figure it out earlier- When you went back in time with Omi, your interference changed the original battle's outcome!"

Dojo blinked slowly. "What? Kinda changing topic on me here—"

"Listen, listen! The scrolls are right, but so is Master Omi! The scrolls say what happened in this universe, but Master Omi saw what happened in the other universe, the one where Chase Young stayed on the side of good! You remember both because you were there both times!"

The other monks stared. Maybelline pursed her lips, peering down at them from the Sapphire Dragon's back. Dojo tilted his head. "Okay?"

Rio frowned at the others' bewilderment. "What? It makes perfect sense! Master Omi went back in time and fought Wuya in the other universe, and his participation changed the outcome! Butterfly Effect! That makes sense, doesn't it?" He turned a wild gaze to Raimundo, the only monk in the group who seemed to be following his ramblings with any sort of comprehension. "Doesn't it, Papa— uh, Raimundo? That—" His face paled a bit, and his epiphany dropped like a lead weight. "Raimundo. That's what I meant to—I don't know why I said—"

"I do," Raimundo said quietly. "And yeah, that makes sense."

"Does it?" Kimiko asked, hands on her hips. "Because you might need to say all that again a little slower."

Squirming free from Rio's grip, Dojo sprang onto Omi's shoulder and coiled under his shirt. Peeking out and pointing up at the Sapphire Dragon, who now searched the snow for Wuya's footprints, he asked, "More importantly, kids, are we sure that thing is under our control?"

Maybelline sat up proudly. "Of course it—hey!" She kicked into the Sapphire Dragon's neck when it whirled its head around and snarled at them. "No, Sapphire, no zombifying my friends!" The Emperor Scorpion still glowed on her wrist as she slid down the other Wu's back and landed in the snow. She walked around to face the dragon up close. "I know you've got a grudge against Dojo, but turning people into blue zombie statues is not very nice."

She waggled an index finger at the dragon, who responded with an intensely annoyed scowl. Maybelline pouted and patted the creature's nose. "Poor little lizard, covered in all that dirty soot and shoved in a drawer for years. I'd be pretty angry and lonely, too; no wonder you blast people. You just wanna come out and get some exercise, don't you? Don't you, big guy?" Her voice rose in pitch as she cooed at the giant dragon and petted its nose. Her brother slapped a hand to his forehead.

"Great," Raimundo said in a low mutter. "My future daughter is bonding with a sociopathic Shen Gong Wu." He lifted his eyes to the sky. "Where did I go wrong?"

Rio, the only person who heard Raimundo's mumble, pulled his lips back in a nervous smile while his shoulders went rigid with alarm. "Du-daughter? W-what? Haha, she's not your daughter! What gave y-you that idea?"

Raimundo crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Dude. Your name is Rio, and you've called me 'Papa' twice since you got here. You thought I couldn't figure it out?"

Rio paled a bit. Omi, whose own thoughts distracted him from the nearby conversation, turned to Dojo. "I shall have to meditate on Rio's… fervent discovery, but did you already know about Wuya's immunity to Xiaolin elements?"

Dojo blinked. "Didn't you?"

Kimiko's mouth dropped open. "Of course not! You never told us!"

"I thought you knew already; it was obvious!"

"Are you kidding me?"

Almost instantly, the three Wudai Warriors launched into a tirade at the green dragon for neglecting to inform them about the "obvious" tidbit of information. When Raimundo turned his attention to the others, Rio took a few awkward steps backward. "H-hey, sis? Gotta say goodbye to your buddy, there. We kinda need to head out. Right now, immediately. ASAP."

"No, no, no!" Maybelline pulled the blue dragon's snout into a hug. Judging by the creature's exasperated expression, the affection was not reciprocated. Pouting at Rio, she said, "But we just saved the day! Can't we all go back to the temple and hang out a little longer?"

Trotting to their prior hiding place and grabbing the Cheetah Claws out of the partly melted snow, Rio said, "We've already changed way too much; there's no telling what the future will look like. We gotta clear out before we do any more damage."

A voice said behind him, "I dunno, dude, it'd be pretty rude to take off without saying goodbye." Rio spun around again, and Raimundo smirked at him. The Wudai Warriors still bickered with Dojo a good distance away; the three were alone. "I hope I didn't raise you two without any manners."

Maybelline's eyebrows shot up at her brother. "You told him?"

Rio flailed his hands. "I didn't tell him anything!"

"I thought we were keeping the parent thing a secret!"

"We were—No! There is no parent thing! No one is anyone's parents!"

"Did your mom seriously name you 'Maybelline'?" Raimundo asked, letting his thumbs rest in his pockets while he furrowed his eyebrows. "Because 'Rio,' that's cool. Best city there is. But 'Maybelline'? I'm gonna need a while to come to terms with that."

After a moment of stiff silence, Maybelline gave a defeated sigh and turned to the Sapphire Dragon. "Take a nap for a while; I'll see you in a few years, 'kay?" Looking quite relieved to be temporarily freed from its new friend, the Sapphire Dragon snorted, coiled, and shrank back down to its original state to land on Maybelline's palm. She pulled off the Emperor Scorpion and brought the two Shen Gong Wu to the Shoku Warrior. Dropping them both in his hands, she finally said, "That's not my real name."

Next to her, Rio groaned and rested his face in his palms. Raimundo did a poor job concealing the relief on his face. "Really?" Clearing his throat, he asked, "So, what are your real names?"

She pointed at her brother. "You'll figure his out in a decade or two, and Mom will tell you mine."

"Uh, yeah. That's the other thing." Raimundo stuffed the two Wu in his pockets and shrugged. Scuffing one foot under him for a moment, he asked, "At the risk of destroying the time space continuum, who's your mom?"

The twins' mouths fell open before they turned to look at each other. Incredulous, Rio turned back to Raimundo and asked, "You don't know? You haven't figured it out—?"

This time, it was his sister's turn to kick him. While Rio winced and lifted his shin, Raimundo gestured to them and said, "I mean, the only other person you look like is Kimiko, but…"

Maybelline tilted her head, for once keeping her face expressionless. "But…?"

Raimundo shrugged again and sheepishly looked away. "She's already turned me down. A couple times, actually. So it's probably someone else, right?"

He did not turn back in time to see the twins exchange glances again. While Rio glared at his sister warningly, she grinned and said, "Well, that's the thing. Our mom asked you out."

"Really? Huh." With a half-smile, Raimundo said, "I guess I'm gonna like her, then."

"You do. A lot. It's really gross."

Raimundo smile expanded. Behind him, the bickering died down, and the Wudai Warriors trotted over to join them. Omi eyed the Cheetah Claws on Rio's wrist, and his voice turned crestfallen. "Are you two leaving already? But you have not yet met Master Fung, or taught me how to summon Shen Gong Wu silently, or shown us all the tricks to the Emperor Scorpion—"

"Sorry, little dude," said Rio, resting an elbow on his sister's shoulder. "Gotta keep the space time continuum from imploding and all that."

Kimiko straightened her back and rested a hand on one hip. "So no spoilers about the future, huh?"

"No spoilers. All secret. No one can know. Right, Raimundo?" He gave his future father a surprisingly piercing stare.

Raimundo nodded solemnly, though his smile hadn't faded completely. "All secret."

Rio turned his focus to the Cheetah Claws. "So. Do I just need to focus really hard on our present day, or…?"

"Pretty sure Master Omi said it takes round trips," said Maybelline. "So it should take us right back, give or take a few minutes."

"Well," Kimiko said with a smile, "it was pretty cool to meet you both. Thanks for saving our butts and everything."

Maybelline beamed. "No problem! I'll gladly save all your butts anytime!" Rio rolled his eyes.

"You said that you have met me before?" asked Omi. "If so, then I look forward to meeting you again!"

Clay nodded in agreement. "Y'all try not to give your parents a rough time, ya hear?"

Rio snapped his head up, immediately suspicious, and Raimundo raised his eyebrows at the cowboy. Maybelline ran a hand through her hair and decided to change the subject. "You know what I really wanna know?"

Rio turned his apprehensive gaze toward his sister. "What?"

Expression contemplative, she pursed her lips. "If we put the Sapphire Dragon in a fight against Mala Mala Jong, who would win?"

"I have no idea," he answered, voice deadpan, "and we aren't gonna find out when we go home. Cheetah Claws!" He lifted up the Shen Gong Wu, and it started to sparkle.

Maybelline smirked. "Well, obviously, you aren't—"

"Kaze, do not—"

The two launched into an argument just as the Cheetah Claws flared, casting them both in a glowing orb. The Wudai and Shoku Warriors raised their arms to block the light out of their eyes, and the twins vanished.

When the light faded, the two dropped to the floor. They both had to blink a few times before they could see properly. Their parents' room was just how they'd left it. The Eye of Dashi still lay on the floor near the desk, and the computer's hard drive was still charred black and emitting faint smoke.

"Huh," the brother said. "Papa was right. Stable time loop."

"Kazeko. Comilei."

The twins' backs stiffened, and they sat up and spun their heads around. Wearing the robes of a Grand Master Dragon, Kimiko sat in the desk chair with her legs crossed and her chin resting on one hand. Behind her and in matching robes, Raimundo leaned one elbow on the chair's backrest.

Kaze rubbed her neck. "Mom. Papa."

"Would either of you happen to know who set my computer on fire?" Kimiko asked with a smile, though her eyes were already trained on the culprit.

To Comi's credit, he didn't immediately point to his sister, but the instinctive shift in his gaze still gave her away. Kaze's lips pressed into a thin line while she sheepishly shrugged at her parents. "Well… I was playing Goo Zombies Go-Kart, and I kept losing, sooooo I may or may not have put the Eye of Dashi in the CD-rom to try and send it into the game…"

"Because that's definitely how technology works," finished Comi with a solemn nod.

Raimundo held up four fingers. "So, to sum up: you used the Eye of Dashi, which you're not supposed to do without permission; you used the Cheetah Claws, which you're not supposed to do at all; you fought Wuya on your own, which you're definitely not allowed to do at all—"

Kaze's eyebrows lifted. "You remember that?"

"Of course we do; we were there." Kimiko leaned back in the chair and glanced up at Raimundo. "It just took me a lot longer than your father to figure out who you were. Honestly, 'Rio'? Terrible. I'd never name my child that. At least 'Maybelline' sounds pretty."

Raimundo defiantly shook his head before he continued, index finger still raised. "And after you did all that stuff we told you not to do… you kicked Wuya's butt and saved all of ours. So you two have put us in a bit of a pickle."

"To ground you or not to ground you," Kimiko said, holding her palms upward at her sides like she was holding invisible weights. "That's the question."

Kaze shrank down a little where she sat. Comi raised his own hand. "For the record, I didn't do any of those first three things, at least not willingly." When Kaze glowered at him for throwing her under the bus, he added, "But also, since we created a stable time loop by going back in the first place, wasn't the fate of the universe hinged on Kaze doing all that anyway? Even though you told her not to, she had to because she already did. Right?"

Kaze narrowed her eyes at her brother, unsure whether he was trying to help her or not. Raimundo bit into his knuckle to keep from chuckling. He leaned over the chair to peer down at Kimiko. "What do you think? Compelling argument?"

Kimiko crossed her arms. "I dunno, Rai, but I know you're biased since you really wanna know if Mala Mala Jong can beat the Sapphire Dragon—"

"Wait, really?" Kaze sat up a little straighter. "You remember that, too?"

Grinning, Raimundo pulled the Heart of Jong out of one pocket and the soot-covered Sapphire Dragon from the other. "If you think I'm gonna let you set the Sapphire Dragon loose in the temple to fight a Cosmic Clash showdown against Mala Mala Jong without me, then you gotta think again, young lady!"

Kimiko showed where Comi had inherited his annoyed eye roll, and Kaze sprang to her feet. "Sapphire Dragon wins, I'm calling it!"

"No way, girl, Mala Mala's packing way more ammo—"

"Exactly! He's slower! Sapphire's gonna run laps around him—"

"Raimundo," Kimiko said, her voice a warning.

Raimundo squatted next to her chair and planted a kiss on her cheek. "We can ground her after this, I promise, okay?" Before Kimiko could rebut, he tossed the Sapphire Dragon to his daughter, and the two bolted out the door and down the hallway, still placing bets on their chosen Wu.

Kimiko pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Master Omi's gonna kill them for this. Maybe Uncle Clay will catch them first." She glanced down at Comi, who twiddled his thumbs where he sat. Raising an eyebrow, she said, "Let me guess. You wanna watch, don't you?"

Comi bit his lip. "Maybe."

"Hmm. Good." Kimiko stood from her chair and smirked. "Didn't want to be the only one." She ruffled his hair before she pulled him up to his feet, and they were both laughing by the time they took off after Kaze and Raimundo.

Author's Notes:

Phew! That took way longer to finish than I expected. I probably could have split this chapter into two, but I figured the readers were due for an ending! In hindsight, I put way too many plot twists into this tiny fic, but hopefully it turned out alright. Thanks again to Chipmunkfanatic for letting me play with her OC babies, especially since I used this fic as a dumping ground for a bucketload of my headcanons, including:

1. The Emperor Scorpion works on sentient Wu, not all Wu

2. Wuya is invulnerable to elements and NOT Shen Gong Wu, like she claims

3. The scrolls in the series' pilot tell a different story than the Time After Time series finale because of the Butterfly Effect

Hope you all enjoyed!