First of; Disclaimer: I don't own Jackie Chan Adventures; JCA and all its characters are the property of Phil Weinstein, Frank Squillace and Jackie Chan himself.

Author Notes/Introduction to Story: Hello, Wondertown9 here with another story out of his mind for you. Yes, I have decided to take my chances into writing my own JCA fanfic. Now, let's get something straight here, I LOVE this show, and this little idea was struck in my mind for a while, pleading to get out… So I'm going to create my own continuation of the show, set (let's see… one, two…) FOUR! Four years after the end of season five. It's time to throw another set of mythos into the bunch. Of course, I will mix it with what the show has already provided, so don't worry. It's time to head to a new kind of Battle of Good vs. Evil!

Welcome one and all; to the story Out of the Corner of the Eye!

Jackie Chan Adventures

Out of the Corner of the Eye

Chapter One

They came from an Outer Place

From the journals of Marcus Malone. First entry. February of 1946.

Have you ever got a glimpse of it? The reality, the truth of this universe, I mean. I suppose not, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this pages. I got a glimpse of it, once. It wasn't a pleasant experience, I assure you that¸ but at least I didn't. There are things in this world that humanity has believed as myths during our whole existence. Now I know that as false, but that's not what I try to explain over these pages. Maybe I'm not trying to explain anything, and this is just one of those… therapeutic writings that are becoming so popular lately.

No, what I want to speak about are not the legends and monsters that lurk in our shadows, but the ones that lurk and draft far away. I will… try to explain, in order for others to not commit the same mistakes as I did. But I must warn you. If you get a glimpse of it, you will never be able to forget it, it will never abandon you. I will try to explain. It all started months ago, when we were still in 1945 and the war was still fresh in our hearts. It was then when I first get a glimpse of it… even now I doubt that it was intentional on any of the parts. But I saw it… just out of the corner of my eye… But I saw it.

Demon Netherworld. The present.

Voids between dimensions are large. The Observer knows them too well, for Eons it has travelled them, both in order to entertain himself and to attend its duties. If you could really discern between what entertains the Observer and what are its duties. Its first duty… hard to remember. It had been the companion of the Messenger for some time, and albeit they had enjoyed their mutual company, they had to part separate ways after a couple of millennia; albeit they resumed their mutual company after the awakening. It had been the one to choose his half-brother's place for slumber, and then it had dedicated time to do its own biding. It was at this time that the Observer had decided that it wanted to be recognized as a 'He' by the life-forms divided in genres. So, since then and until now; the Observer has always been a He.

Probably due to one of his progenitors' nature; the Observer has always liked to amplify his knowledge. Of course, since one of his progenitors was the Memory of All; the Observer could possibly have asked for its enlightening, but he denied it. He is, as all of his kind, immortal, and on top of that, eternal. If they aren't to be surprises, then there is no thrill to explore and, well, Observe. Maybe this is the reason why the Memory of All is so… cold, in comparison with the rest of them. If the Observer had all the answers, he couldn't have met with such a beautiful creature as his current lover, and neither could he have enjoyed the struggles of the small ones in order to stop his half-brother's awakening.

Now he had encountered another Void, the space that keeps one Universe, one plain of existence, away from another. How irrelevant, his kind has been able to cross them like they were butter since the beginning of their existence. This one seems as boring as all of the previous ones. But wait, the Observer now heard something. A sound, small and unclear. Language, that's a language. It's really hard to discern, his kind hasn't made use of a language since his half-brother's awakening, since there was no need. Small, small, the creatures speaking are small. And yet, what they are saying… so similar to the words used by the small ones, back when they tried to stop his kind… Now, focus, there is something similar in them. Elemental control, one of them has much more in it than the other one… Focus, focus… Yes, there they are; the words…

"You are always out fighting wizards!" came the whinny remark of Drago, son of Shendu; to his father, the aforementioned Demon of Fire.

If the Observer had had eyebrows, he could have raised one of them.

Acclimatizing again to understand and comprehend the process of thoughts of smaller life-forms hadn't been as hard as the Observer had imagined at first. Probably due to his current lover's effect over his eternity. So, here he found himself, looking to a quite entertaining spectacle.

To the first two ones, seven new figures had joined short afterwards. And they seemed to have split in two groups.

They were small. But now that the Observer had looked upon them for some time, he was able to see that they were slightly bigger than the small ones. Not very much, but it would be stupid to deny it. Also, there was something deeper connecting them than their shared anatomical size. It ran beyond belonging to the same species. Family? Perhaps, very probably due to their interactions. But no, there was something else... Ah yes, there it was, the observer knew about it. Bagua, Pa Kua or maybe 八卦. Representations of negative aspects of physical reality. So this family belonged to one of those realities that worked with that Balance between Positive and Negative design. Fire, water, earth, wind, moon, sky, mountain and thunder. There was also a ninth one that seemed to be a combination of all those elements. And they seemed to be at war. How amusing.

The first group was composed by Moon, Thunder, Water, Wind and Fire. Fire seemed in charge, while the Observer had noted how Moon and Wind seemed to be playing along only to backstab Fire once the opposing side had fallen. Water and Thunder seemed reluctant to act under Fire's authority, but the Observer didn't sense any deception from them.

The second one was leaded by the multiple one. Following him were Earth, Mountain and Sky. No deception in their souls and minds; their logic the one of someone who follows the one who seems the strongest.

And on top of that, it seemed that the multiple one was the offspring of Fire. How entertaining! Or, at least that's what the Observer thought at first. These specimens... they seemed serious about this conflict. Now, that wasn't amusing. True, the Observer himself had been in conflict with his half-brother for many times through the eons, but they had been over triviality, something very akin to a friendly rivalry. Who should get to destroy a solar system, which cult should be for who... but in the end, the goal, the common goal that had been bestowed upon all of them was never questioned by none of the two. And when his half-brother awoke, the Observer supported him. These ones didn't seem to care, didn't seem to have a goal aside from reining over this Void. What kind of idiot desires to reign over a Void? Or over a simple world? What kind of idiot desires to reign at all? Reining it's unimportant. What matters is flowing. Going in and out into the essences of the universe, bend the basics of reality and also enjoy the tunes of the melodies that suns made while exploding.

And yet, there was something else. Not them per se, but the taunts they were throwing to each other... there was a constant in them. A word.

Now these Negatives of 八卦 (the Observer put the term in his own memory, it was a good one) were lying across the Void, some over pebbles and some others floating. The two sides of the war disposed as pieces of a chess game, prepared to be launched at each other.

"Give up, old man!" the multiple one yelled at Fire. "I have the powers of all of you combined, I am the strongest, and I deserve to reign here!" At those words, the Observer saw how the multiple one shot a bunch of mixed elements to the other party. Fire and Moon combined their powers and held a barrier to stop the attack. Ah, so Fire was a multidiscipline adept. Interesting.

"You idiotic child!" Fire yelled. "You deserve to reign? If you hadn't betrayed me so stupidly, we could have conquered the world! We could have been unstoppable! We could have finally disposed of...!

Chan. There was the word again. Again and again, not only in their words but also in their thoughts. Chan, Chan, Chan... The Negatives of 八卦 said and thought with anger, resentment and even... fear? Strange emotion, fear. Even for something like the Outsider, fear wasn't an unknown emotion. But what did they fear? Chan, Chan, Chan... It was time to get some answers.

Battle unfolded in the Demon Netherworld. Xiao Fung blew powerful streams of wind in order to attack Hsi Wu, but the Sky Demon evaded them thanks to his speed.

"You have to improve that aiming, brother Xiao!" the flying speedster said with an arrogant grin in his face.

"Practice makes the master." Xiao Fung said as he charged and blew another shot of air to his sibling.

While the demons of Sky and Wind battled, so did the ones of Thunder and Mountain. The bad blood between Po Kong and Tchang Zu was no secret between the rest of the Demon Sorcerers, so it was clear that, if presented with the opportunity, they were going to try and kill each other. The funny thing was that it was nearly impossible for one to destroy another. Lightning could do very little to the mountain, and the mountain was too slow to harm the lightning.

"Ahaha! Tickles!" Po Kong said as lightning impacted in her body.

"Overweighed lazy woman!" Tchang Zu insulted his sister as he levitated around her and shot lightning after lightning at her.

"I'm not overweighed, brother!" Po Kong yelled back as she moved slowly and tried to hit Tchang Zu with her arms. "It's just that I have a big skeleton!"

Bai Tza was doing far better against Dai Gui, as her agility and versatility were putting her far ahead of the Earth Demon. Dai Gui, no rock to use aside from the ones that floated around; and of course. no ground to dig in. It was clear that he was in the losing side of this fight, and as Bai Tza shifted to water and rematerialized in the same moment that he turned around, making him trip on her mermaid-like tail and fall to his back.

"Dai Gui thinks that he should have chosen more wisely his side…" the Earth Demon mumbled between his teeth.

"Oh? What is this?" Bai Tza said into a mocker tone. "Powerful Dai Gui is having second thoughts?"

And as an enraged Dai Gui got to his feet again and charged towards Bai Tza one more time, Drago fought both his father, Shendu, and his uncle, Tso Lan; the eldest of the Demon Sorcerers. The ancient Moon Demon had to admit that, even with a complete lack of discipline, his nephew had assembled quite the significant amount of power inside him. And Tso Lan knew that Shendu felt pride over his son's growth. But Drago's problem wasn't his lack of discipline (in that matter, Tzang Zu and His Wu were much worse) neither was his ambition. It was his youth, a youth that made him not understand when was the moment for betrayal and when for cooperation. Tso Lan supposed that only age could teach that lesson in particular. Or didn't that glorious reality that Shendu had crafted using the Book of Ages been a result of the eight siblings cooperation? Had the existence of that reality stopped His Wu and Tzang Zu from holding meetings in order to overthrown others from their territories? No, it hadn't. But Drago didn't understand that. No, he was too childlike for that. In some ways, very similar to how Shendu was millennia ago, when the eight siblings were young. And what had that youth cost them? Not very much… only their dominion over the whole Earth!

"I'm sick of this!" Drago yelled at his two seniors. "Always so high and mighty! Always so eager to look down on me! Well, never more, old man!" Drago shouted at the top of his lungs as he shot water and thunder at the same time towards the two older demons. Instead of blocking it with their powers, the two demons just dodged it by levitating away. Then Tso Lan saw how Shendu fired a torrent of fire from his mouth towards his son, just for the kid to absorb it by his mouth. Tso Lan repressed his need of scolding his brother. Of course Drago was immune to his fire based powers! He had fire chi inside of him! Sometimes Tso Lan really lamented Shendu's custom of… playing with human females, but seeing how it had resulted, the Moon Demon had made clear in his head that mating with humans could result only in disaster.

"It's the end, old man!" Drago shouted again. "It doesn't matter what you throw at me, I will shrug it off as it's nothing! I am supreme! No one can stop me! I will annihilate every one that dares to stay in my path! I will…!"

"Greetings" a voice that neither of the Demon Sorcerers of Drago could identify as speaking to their ears or their minds spoke. And upon that voice, the battle for the reign of the Demon Netherworld froze. Drago's speech ended abruptly, and every demon stopped to move, looking up to the sky over them.

Over them, the form of the observer had made itself present to the Negatives of 八卦. Of course, none of the demons knew that the Observer was, well, himself. Instead, they only looked in awe and horror at an enormous and changing mass of bright yellow tentacle-like things. There were several eyes over it, and after some time, the tentacles took the form of a gigantic monstrosity with two large arms made of compressed tentacles and no legs. It looked very similar to a enormous, nightmarish yellow octopus; its eyes focusing in each one of the sorcerers, as if it was scanning their souls. None of the eight siblings, and much less Drago, knew how to react to this new player in the game. It had came out of nowhere, and it was so big that it could hold Po Kong in its palm as she was nothing but a peanut.

"Greetings" the Observer said again.

"G-Greetings?" Xiao Fung, being the most civilized of the Demon Sorcerers aside from Tso Lan, greeted the Observer back.

The Wind Demon's response seemed to please the thing, and then its eyes focused in the rest of the Demon Sorcerers. The demons exchanged looks with each other. It was clear that the thing was expecting something more.

"Greetings" Tso Lan said too, and shortly afterwards, Shendu did the same, and so did each one of the other siblings. Even Drago, overwhelmed by the sheer presence of the newcomer, bowed slightly and muttered a forced 'Hello' to it.

"Good" the Observer said. "You keep mentioning a word, Chan it is; in your thoughts. I want to know what this 'Chan' you speak about is."

None of the Demon Sorcerers seemed to understand what was going on… but their malicious instincts kicked in, even if they were mixed with fear. This could be an opportunity to take advantage of! And so, the first one trying was Xiao Fung. None of the others seemed to disagree with the fact. Xiao always had been the most diplomatic member of the family, and his tongue could be incredibly useful in cases like this.

"If I may…" the Wind Demon spoke. "Could you tell us who you are?"

"I am me." the Observer answered.

Xiao Fung found difficult to continue. It wasn't that he hadn't more questions, it was that he was afraid of the thing's response if he proved too insistent or provocative. In a moment of fear, he searched for the help of his siblings. Only Bai Tza seemed to stand up for him. "What my brother seems to desire to ask is not who, but rather what you are. Do you have a role or belong to a precise species?"

"I am the patron of decadence, nihilism and shepherds." the Observer explained. "And also I am Observer, traveler and also researcher." the Observer twirled and rolled over himself, his tentacles moved, but his eyes did not leave the demons. Looking at it made the heads of the eight siblings hurt. It seemed so... odd while doing those movements.

That didn't clear any much. Shendu was the next one to step into the conversation. While the old demonic dragon was arrogant and angry as no other, he wasn't a fool either, and knew how to play the subtle art of conversation. "Do you have a name?" the Fire Demon asked. "Or maybe a title we can refer to you by?" Shendu asked, faking a humble tone. This thing was powerful, that couldn't be denied. Shendu was sure that, if he played his cards well, maybe this thing could bring him freedom. If his siblings get it or not wasn't something that mattered to him.

The Observer twirled again, his shape losing form almost completely and then returning to its standard-yellow-armed-octopus like guise. Shendu interpreted it as the thing's way of showing thought process. "Name..." the Observer said, and this time Shendu was sure that it was speaking in his head. "My name is not spoken, for I am the Unspeakable One. Yet, if you wish to refer to me by name..." the Observer's form tensed, as if reaffirming itself and his argument.

"Call me Hastur, the King in Yellow."

The name let a strange feeling upon the Demon Sorcerers. Even the likes of Shendu, Dai Gui and Tzang Zu found something dreading about it. It wasn't the name, or the title, those weren't ominous in the slightest, it was just that... there was something in the sound of the name, in the way in bounced back inside their heads against the bone of their skull... something was wrong with that name.

"Now, as I said upon my arrival," the Observer, or as he will be know from now on, Hastur; continued speaking "I am curious about this Chan you keep mentioning. It seems that it is responsible of your current estate. I wish to learn about it."

There it was desire. That was something that it wasn't unknown to any demon. After all, each one of them was a master of manipulating that emotion in one or another way. If this thing wanted to know about Chan, whatever reasons it had, they could make a deal. This was a very useful opportunity and the only thing needed, but of course, someone had to ruin it. After all, Tso Lan had stated it earlier, youth is such a troublesome thing...

"Now listen here, you overgrown octopus!" Drago yelled, his foolish bravado imposing itself to his fear. "I don't who or what you are, but you won't get in the way of the victory I deserve! Much less for so stupid reason as...!"

"YOU IDIOTIC FOOLISH BOY!" Shendu yelled at the top of his lungs to his son. The thing that made Drago look completely surprised at his progenitor was that Shendu hadn't sounded angered or hateful. He had sounded worried.

"Father?"

"Ah, a volunteer" Hastur spoke. "Magnificent."

Drago's body tensed itself to the extreme, as if it had suffered from instant and extreme rigor mortis. Then his eyes shut wide open, and Drago felt something dwelling, crawling and piercing through his mind, exploring every corner, unveiling every secret and mystery the son of Shendu had inside him. And as Hastur looked at him, Drago couldn't avoid looking back at the King in Yellow. Oh, what a foolish act. The things he saw... the things he saw!

The scream that left from Drago's mouth was deafening and frightening to the extreme. It wasn't a scream product of pain, no. It was a product of pure horror. His eyes started to cry blood due to the sheer monstrosity that was Hastur's mind. Or whatever he had as a mind. After minutes that Drago felt as years, his body started to horribly and painfully morph, getting smaller and smaller each second that passed. When his screams ended, Drago was back in his more humanoid, small form; all the chi he had gained from the Eight Inmortals' Relics gone. Drago was left floating in the void of the Netherworld, his body trembling and eyes injected in blood, his face contorted into a totally scared expression, incoherencies being mumbled by the depowered half-demon.

"Impossible..." Shendu whispered as he saw his son return to his former form. It didn't make sense! Once completely bound with the eight remnants of chi, it should have been impossible for them to be removed! And yet there was Drago, completely drained of the power he had fought so hard for. Shendu noted a grim look taking over Hsi Wu, Po Kong and Dai Gui. They had just accepted that they had lost their war. But none of that mattered to Shendu anymore; he kept staring at the mumbling form of his offspring. A strange feeling took over his heart. Was it sadness over his son's condition? No, no; it couldn't be. But wounded pride... yes, that was something Shendu could identify as what he was feeling now. True, Shendu himself had been planning into killing his own son, but he was his son! If there was someone who could make that claim, that was him, and no one else! And what this Hastur had done (again, the name producing a headache) hadn't killed him, but reduced the half-demon to a pathetic estate... that was an even worse insult to Shendu's pride. "What did you do?!"

"I wanted to know, and I took the answers I needed." Hastur spoke again. "It is not of my fault if he decided to look to me as I was looking to him. Still..." Hastur's form twirled again, but this time it didn't look like a representation of thought, instead showing amusement. "Jackie Chan. A... Human being..." Hastur looked down at the Demon Sorcerers. "Humans that... defeated you. I hadn't called them that since... and now I have found them again, a reflection..." an idea took form in Hastur's mind. And if his body had had something similar to what we call 'mouth', now it would probably been forming a smile. He started to leave, but the yells of the Demon Sorcerers stopped him.

"Wait!" His Wu shouted. "You are going to left us here, just like that?! You can't do that!"

"His Wu is right." Tso Lan stated, more calmly than his youngest brother. "You have taken something from us, and you have left our brother's child in a fatal state. I know it may sound… disrespectful of me to say this, but maybe we could ask you for compensation?"

Hastur twirled again, indicating more amusement. "I looked inside the former multiple one's head" he said, referring to Drago. "You wish for freedom, don't you? I can give you that. Is that what you want?"

All the Demon Sorcerers answered with a deafening 'Yes!' to the question, except for Shendu. The Demon of Fire kept silence and then, after several minutes, he answered in a cold tone. "No."

This surprised the other seven siblings. What was their brother thinking? Then, felling like the biggest of fools, Tso Lan caught onto what had happened. But it was too late to retaliate or avoid their mutual, incoming fate. A deafening sound echoed through the whole Demon Netherworld. Just as it sounded, each one of the Demon Sorcerers felt something over their bodies. Something felt wrong among them, a thought that was confirmed when their flesh and bones started to decompose themselves into dust.

"What is happening?!" a terrified Po Kong asked while her humongous body crumbled and collapsed over itself.

Hastur twirled one more time, this one slowly. "I had dissembled the electromagnetic energetic force that keeps the particles of your body together." the King in Yellow explained. "Without it, your flesh will become cells, your cells will break into molecules, molecules into atoms, atoms into neutrons, positrons and negatrons; those will break in quarks, the quarks into... nothing."

The Demon Sorcerers didn't have even time to think. In a matter of seconds, their physical existences had been reduced to microscopic particles. Shendu watched as seven spectral forms disappeared from his sight, each one in a particular direction. "Astral forms..." the Fire Demon whispered. Hastur had indeed granted his siblings freedom. In their astral forms, they could leave the Netherworld and roam free in the human world... as nothing but harmless spirits, if not wanting to possess a human or an animal and fight with the body's original conscience until they had surprised and erased it. Shendu remembered his time inside Valmont and how unpleasant had been to share a body with the egomaniacal crime lord. If not for the urge of freeing his brethren, Shendu could have dedicated all his time into overpowering the man's conscience and getting his body all for himself and then adapt it into something more fitting for his demonic majesty. The Demon of Fire supposed that his siblings will follow that course of action once they had encountered a body. He then sensed some kind of relief, like if someone had got something incredibly heavy out of his shoulders. Looking up, he discovered how Hastur had left the scene, no trail of the monstrosity to be seen, gone as subtlety and silently as he had come.

That left Shendu alone, looking at the mentally and soul crippled form his son had been reduced to. He turned his draconic head and looked around, the Netherworld extending itself to where his eyes reached, and his were pretty strong eyes. He was alone, no one left to dispute his rule or to challenge him. Shendu chuckled, finally he was lord of his own realm. A lifeless, dead realm that was devised as his and his family's prison by the Eight Immortals and where no one would follow his orders. Perhaps he must have accepted the monstrosity's offer and be freed, even if in his astral form. He looked at Drago once again while the half-demon continued to mumble incoherencies. Shendu asked himself if the power of the horse talisman inside of him would be able to heal a mind as it could heal a body. "The powers of the Talismans…" Shendu thought for a moment. He had almost forgotten upon the monster's arrival, he still had the powers of the Twelve Noble Animals inside of him, including one that let him exit his own body in an astral form. A plan started to form in Shendu's mind, a plan of revenge against the so-called King in Yellow. But somehow, he tried to think about it without thinking in the great monstrosity. His head still hurt each time he thought about its appearance, or its name…

In another universe…

Hastur flew, or more precisely, the King in Yellow drafted between worlds and stars in the search of someone. This universe was… calling it chaotic would be a euphemism. After all, this place was something that Hastur and the ones of his kind called 'home'; the Court of the Daemon Sultan itself. The massive form of the King in Yellow continued his search, until it found the one he had been looking for.

"Half-brother." Hastur spoke, again in both mental and physical way. He didn't get an answer at first, so he thought that he must be more insistent. "Cthulhu, I am here to speak with you, half-brother. You who are the High Priest of the Outer Gods, who like me, are the child of our father Yog-Sothoth, the Memory of All, the Key and the Gate; and also the child of his offspring, Nug, who is also my sibling. You who are called the Great Dreamer; answer me."

Before the mass of yellow tentacles and eyes that Hastur was, raised another imposing form of similar size, maybe even bigger. As Hastur was of a pale yellow, this was a mass of pale green that quickly took the form of a somehow titanic and draconic being with features such as wings and a scaled torso, that had tentacles as arms and a head that looked like an enormous dark green octopus. Two thin lines in the head served him as eyes, although he didn't like to use them. For many eons, Great Cthulhu had used this form in order to sleep in the sunken city of R'lyeh. This was the High Priest's standard form in order to deal with 'visitors'. Now, Cthulhu wasn't one very akin to be disturbed, usually spending his time just floating around the cosmos. Truth to be told, since his awakening and posterior summoning of the Outer Gods, his 'task' had ended, and there was very little to do, except for floating and dreaming. He didn't like to be disturbed, but he also knew that Hastur didn't come to him unless he had something incredibly important to say; such was the relationship between the two half-siblings.

"What is it; Hastur or sometimes known as Xastur or H'aaztre, my half-brother and also uncle; the King in Yellow; the Unspeakable; and also the Observer; that you want to discuss with me?" Cthulhu asked, both in mind and body; even if he knew the answer just by the fact that he was speaking in a language. "You are speaking… like a Human." Great Cthulhu hadn't forgotten the name of that species. For many millennia they had either worshipped or opposed him, and even if he thought of them as nothing but flies, he could never forget them. After all, it had been the world they inhabited the place for his slumber. "Why? How?"

"Read me, half-brother." Hastur said.

Great Cthulhu did as the King in Yellow had requested, looking through the memories that his half-brother had gained from Drago and his trip to the Netherworld. "A reflection," Cthulhu said. "You never found a reflection until now, Hastur. It is… quite interesting. Are you suggesting that I may take this other as my new place of slumber?"

"That is my proposition" Hastur explained. "Since your awakening nothing had transpired upon this universe that it wasn't out of our action, due to the Court of Azathoth extending itself across the stars. And even if the Nuclear Chaos still sleeps, you may agree, this existence of us just longing and floating over is starting to feel rather… monotonous after so many thousands of millennia."

"You spend too much time in the company of Nyarlathotep." Cthulhu stated. "And those children of Carcosa too. You are starting to sound exactly like the Messenger of the Outer Gods."

"Perhaps." Hastur answered. "I should take this matter to the Crawling Chaos too; he will like to know about it."

"Nyarlathotep will agree with your idea." Cthulhu stated. "He misses those small ones; they entertained him like no other race has." Cthulhu twirled over himself too, a gimmick he shared with his half-brother. "And these humans seem more resourceful than the ones we were familiar with..." Great Cthulhu decided to make his decision clear. "Tell Nyarlathotep that I had agreed with you. For long I had longed for a place for sleeping and dreaming like it were the seas of that world in which my sunken R'lyeh was housed."

"Then it is settled." Hastur spoke, and started to float away. "I will head to Kadath now." Hastur started to leave, not without giving a farewell to Great Cthulhu. "Dream well, half-brother." and Hastur left Cthulhu to his own bidding.

"Jackie Chan..." Cthulhu thought before drifting away into the void between the stars. "I wonder, will I dream about you? Or will you dream about me?"

Hastur's next stop was Kadath, the place that existed without existing, an intersection between the physical plane and the Dreamlands. The city-world that usually housed the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep; the Messenger of the Outer Gods; the thousand-faced-one; the one that was regarded not only as one of the Daemon Sultan's offspring, but also as the Nuclear Chaos' mind itself given will and personality of its own. Hastur knew that, if there was one thing in the whole multiverse, in all the plains of existence that must be feared over the rest; that was Nyarlathotep. Histrionic, volatile, malefic, chaotic... and yet playful and, if pleased, such a provider of good company. Convincing his old travelling companion wouldn't be very difficult. In his own way, Nyarlathotep had loved Humanity, understood Humanity. They had so many things in common... There was a time when the Crawling Chaos had been known only as Nyarla. It had been Humanity who had given him the 'hotep' suffix. And he had kept it. Maybe the Messenger had thought of it funny, maybe he had grown fond of it. But he had lamented the lost of the ones that had given it to him. Without Humanity, the chaotic prince of Kadath felt so bored. And so Hastur only needed to do for him what the Negatives of 八卦 had done for the King in Yellow. Use something that gains interest.

Hastur started to project the memories he had gained from the now former multiple one, images of a human male pass a third of his life wearing a blue pullover; an old man with a wrinkled and stern yet caring expression in his face; a big man with a round body and a kindly spirit; and a young female child wearing an almost perpetual expression of curiosity.

The palace of Kadath that served as Nyarlathotep home from time to time crumbled in a matter of seconds, and then was rebuilt at the same pace. Towering over Hastur himself, a black mass of tentacles, wings and mouths was laughing at such intensity that it could be heard light years away, and even in the silent space were no sound can traverse. The laughter of the Crawling Chaos travelled to every corner, as it marking the start of a great event.

"HUMANITY LIVES!" Nyarlathotep exclaimed. Hastur's form twirled again, this time in excitement at the fact that Nyarlathotep was as eager as him for this reflection.

Hastur had done everything in his... well, not-hands. Once things had been spoken with Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos had taken matters to the Key and the Gate; the Memory of All. The Lurker at the Threshold had given his approbation. So now the only thing that lasted was to wait for the superposing and merging. Well, Hastur had the ideal place for that. In the depths of space, far away from the Court of the Sultan; was Carcosa. Just like Kadath was the city-world that Nyarlathotep used more usually; Carcosa was Hastur's. And just like the Messenger of the Outer Gods was fond of humans; Hastur found himself (with the passing of the millennia) fond of the inhabitants of Carcosa; humanoid creatures that stood normally two and half meters tall. The children of Carcosa had a strange stone-like skin with a wet moisture always over them. Their skin was of a sickening scarlet, always with some marks that looked like cracks in marble. Their eyes were usually of a amber tone, with blue sclera. For teeth they had three lines of little yet sharp fangs, and their tongues were snake-like and of a deep purple.

Over the children of Carcosa and the city-world itself, ruled and governed Cassilda; former Princess of Carcosa and now Queen of these lands and Hastur's sporadic lover. The woman of Carcosa had features that could only be described as 'geometrically sharp' and yet soft at the same time; a mane of curly and rough hair of an obsidian tone fell from her head until it reached her ankles. Enveloped in regal dresses all the time, Cassilda expended her time in the magnificent gardens of her palace, either singing or making sure that her kingdom marched as she desired. She didn't long for Hastur, because even if they enjoyed their mutual company, she knew that the likes of the Unspeakable went and came as they pleased. Still every time he came to her, she greeted him and enjoyed his company. It wasn't what you would call love; it was just… mutual interest. Hastur enjoyed the company of Cassilda, and the Queen's reign over the dim city-world was virtually unchallenged when you have a Great Old One supporting you. Would that stop Hastur from, if necessary, destroying Carcosa with its own coils? No. Would that make Cassilda a submissive, fanatical follower and puppet of the King in Yellow? No.

Cassilda felt the change in the air and in the gravity surrounding her that signaled Hastur's arrival. How many years had she spent without him? Not much really, just a couple of centuries. This could mean that either he had grown tired (which was ratter improbable, for not calling it impossible) or he had found something. Albeit the palace of the Queen had been given shape and space to house Hastur titanic form, he often compressed himself into the form of the King in Yellow; a slender figure garbed in a pale yellow cloak, with two wings composed of pure white feathers at his back, skeletal hands and legs; and tentacles of the same color of the cloak pouring from the sleeves and the bottom of the cloak. Maybe there was no cloak as it there had not been a mask, maybe it was just the form that his body took every time that he donned this particular guise.

"You have returned once more" Cassilda said when the King in Yellow descended upon her gardens, white wings flapping majestically as if emitting a tranquilizing sound. "Have your travels paid off to you?"

Hastur approached Cassilda. In his King in Yellow guise, he only stood a head tall over her. "They have." Hastur spoke, this time with only his voice. "I have found a reflection."

Cassilda titled her head in curiosity, an as the two regents of Carcosa started to walk the gardens, Hastur provided her with the same images he had showed Great Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep. Cassilda smirked in an almost unnoticeable manner. "Another universe, this one without the influences of the Court; with another Earth." Cassilda made a pause and her smile widened. "I never had the pleasure to meet with Humanity, neither had my dear Camilla, nonetheless with one so resourceful and bend into winning against superior forces. Are we moving there?"

"Yog-Sothoth is going to superpose our reality to theirs." Hastur explained. "He and Daoloth will insert us in the main temporal chain of their universe. It will be as if we had always been there. And once is done, we will have been there."

"Yet you don't fear that some of them will notice?" Cassilda asked. "Or that some like the Mi-go will protest?"

"Mi-go has nothing to protest about, their quest about attaining intuition from Humanity didn't end as they wished, so this prospect only falls in their favor." Hastur explained. "Speaking of Camilla, where is she? She is normally with you the entire time."

"My sister has hit something akin to a 'rebellious phase'." Cassilda explained. "She goes in and out the palace at every hour. In a way, I think that maybe she has learned that from you, my King."

Hastur didn't object to that. Then he felt something stirring the reality around them. "Ah, it seems that the merging of the universes and timelines has started."

"So we are departing to a brand new reality." Cassilda explained. "I hope that this Humanity doesn't break under the machinations of the Great Messenger before I have met them."

"I suppose not. Nyarlathotep will be more cautious this time." Hastur reassured her. "Are you going to sing until we depart?"

"Indubitably," Cassilda answered.

Gravity, space and time started to fluctuate around Carcosa and the rest of the universe that was now under the grasp of the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones. Promises of a brand new universe to conquer, investigate, or play with laid ahead. And as the… 'minds', of many of these creatures centered themselves on the Humanity that had triumphed over so many adversities and others just thought about the merging as if it was just , as the two realities merged in one courtesy of the Key and the Gate; Cassilda sang a song for her and the King in Yellow.

Along the shore the cloud waves break,

The twin suns sink beneath the lake,

The shadows lengthen

In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies

But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

Where flap the tatters of the King,

Must die unheard in

Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead;

Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

Shall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa.

Earth. San Francisco; Uncle's Rare Finds.

Deep in the night, an old Chinese man awoke in cold sweat and a frightened expression. This elder, only knew as 'Uncle' to his own family, got up from his bed and descended to the kitchen. He took the remnants of the day's tea and heated them a little in the fire. He served himself a cup and drank it slowly, letting the heat to warm his old body. He had felt something… weird. It hadn't been the willies, Uncle was sure of it. It had been something more. Or maybe it had been just a nightmare, a memory of a past he thought forgotten that had returned in his dreams to haunt him. And yet he had the sensation that something had changed, abruptly and unnaturally.

"Sensei?" a deep yet kindly voice asked from the door of the kitchen. Looking in that direction, Uncle saw Tohru, his apprentice in the ways of chi magic. Well, not apprentice anymore, Tohru had graduate a few years ago, when they had defeated the last great evil that had appeared, showing humanity his horrible face. And yet Tohru still insisted into referring at the Chinese Elder as 'Sensei'. Uncle supposed that it was the way of showing respect that the gentle giant had. A part of Uncle, however, could heard something very similar to 'Father' in the way Tohru said that word.

"Are you alright?" the japanese sumo asked again.

The old man took a few sips from his cup. "Don't worry Tohru. Uncle just have a reaaaally bad dream."

"No 'willies'?" Tohru asked, approaching the table and sitting into a chair that was larger than the others, especially bought for him.

Uncle shook his head. "No, Uncle hasn't had willies in a long time, not since dragon-boy was banished along Shendu four years ago." Uncle smiled and reclined himself into his seat. "I suppose Uncle is just getting old... his body is telling him to prepare for graaaave!"

"Sensei, don't joke with that." Tohru said to his mentor, albeit he couldn't suppress a litlle smile.

"Bah, Uncle has lived enough. He will let shop and position as Wizard to you and then go away." He laughed a little. "Just promise to not cry in his funeral."

"Shouldn't the shop be left to Jackie?" Tohru asked. "He is the archeologist, the one that understands what these objects are."

"Bah!" Uncle yelled, regaining his usual stern but stronger demeanor. "Jackie is good archeologist, but very baaaaad salesman! And Uncle thinks that Jackie will cry too muuuch in Uncle's funeral!"

"Sensei..." Tohru repeated, this time with a little more concern Uncle's 'joke'.

"It was just an old man's raving, Tohru." Uncle assured him, and then stretched his old body. "Uncle must return to sleep; he needs energy to stand proudly in niece's grand day tomorrow."

Ah yes, Jade's graduation as an agent of Section 13. It stroke as something particularly weird to the japanese chi wizard that Jade, who had just turned sixteen a couple of weeks ago, was now a few hours away of getting officially recognized as an agent of a secret governmental agency. But well, Tohru thought that Section 13 wouldn't be a secret agency if they weren't unorthodox, so the mountain of a man supposed that it was in their line to let Jade became an agent at sixteen. Tohru sighed internally. The time they could spend with Jade had been decreasing over the years. School, then High School, lessons in espionage and combat not only with Jackie, but with other teachers that not only taught her how to fight with the body, but also weapons and guns, a thing that Jade herself didn't like in her own.

"I just don't like it," she had commented to him in one of the times the two of them had been together alone.

"I think that both of us need to rest, Sensei." Tohru said, and both men rose from their seats and went to their rooms. Before getting inside, however, Tohru asked one last question to his mentor. "Sensei, the bad dream, what was it about?"

Uncle looked strangely at Tohru, as if trying to decide if telling him or not. "Uncle doesn't really now," the Chinese elder said. "It was just bad."

The japanese giant left his mentor alone, and went to sleep on his own. Uncle returned to his room and entered his bed. He hadn't told Tohru, but he himself doubted about the significance of the dream he had have. Bah, it was probably just a dream. And so, the patriarch of the Chan family returned to his sleep, the only thing troubling his mind tha his nephew will arrive in time to Jade's graduation. And yet, the mocking voice still echoed distantly…

"You speak about justice, yet you let a good man die…"

Author Notes: Sing it with me, everybody: I love… Eldritch Abominations! I just love their unformed and continental sizes… and how they drive you… insane! With just looking at them…

I bet that no one was expecting that in a JCA fanfic, because no one expects Cthulhu. Never. I fact, why hasn't anybody thought about this before? The Cthulhu Mythos are pretty interesting and have a lot of potential for this kind of stories, and I had always thought that they could make a great thing with JCA. But of course, in order to see how that develops, the story has to grow. And you know how I work, I like setting the 'final bosses' since the start and then let the heroes and smaller villains to drive the plot until the final confrontation… which is what is going to happen here. The Demon Sorcerers (sans Shendu) are out and maybe or maybe not in human bodies, after all.

Let me a review or a PM about what do you think about the idea, or even suggestions about how the plot should unfold (I had the general line for the story overall, but if you have propositions about some scenes or chapters, I would gladly listen to them.) so I can read them. Thanks for reading, anyway!