Project Dark Jade Presents:

Shadows Awakening

Disclaimer: I do not own Jackie Chan Adventures

Special Thanks: To Eduard Kassel, the patron saint of Dark Jade stories, whose awesome work inspired this story, as well as providing some really cool ideas. Also thanks to Zim'sMostLoyalServant, who betareaded this story and provided me with helpful tips to imrpove my writing.

Chapter 1: To Recover What Once Was Lost.

A black, sleek airplane flew over a vast desert, in a nation south of the Arabian Peninsula known as Oman. For the last several hours, the crew of the airplane, who sometimes peeked through the windows, saw nothing but a landscape of dunes of sand that never seemed to change except for the occasional oasis.

"Are we there yet? This is boring," Jade Chan moaned, "I would have brought a comic or something if I knew this trip was going to be so long."

"You shouldn't have come here in the first place," Jackie said in a slightly reprimanding tone, "There's a reason we left you with Tohru at Uncle's shop. This may be too dangerous!"

As usual, Jackie had tried futilely to leave Jade with Tohru at his uncle's shop, but once again his niece managed to sneak onto the plane before it took off.

"Tch. Come on Jackie, you have said that how many times? Like, a hundred? And I'm still alive and unharmed," Jade replied, "Plus, that old guy isn't a threat anymore. Uncle stripped him of his powers, remember."

The reason for the Chans' long journey was Daolon Wong. A couple weeks after being imprisoned, he somehow managed to break out of prison despite having no powers. Further investigation revealed that he had managed to craft a potion that, upon heating, turned into a sleeping gas, and strategically placed it inside one of the prison's air vents. In less than fifteen minutes, most guards and inmates were knocked out, and the old dark wizard made his escape. Other prisoners, such as the infamous Enforcers, who worked for the crime boss Valmont before working for Wong (if against their will) had also escaped.

While Wong wasn't declared a threat by Section 13 due to his now being depowered, the much more savvy Uncle knew better than to leave Wong free to do his bidding. Fortunately, even if Section 13 wasn't authorized to handle matters like Wong's recapture, Captain Black managed to get a plane for Jackie and Uncle to go after him.

"Daolon Wong must never be underestimated!" Uncle yelled at Jade, "He may be powerless now, but as his escape evidences, he still has a few tricks under his sleeve, and I am sure that he will try to find a way to recover his powers, or find a new source of magic. That must not happen!"

"Well, unless he wants to obtain the power to control sand, I don't know what he's doing here," Jade said as she looked at the vast desert again, "Are you sure your location spell is working?"

Floating in front of Uncle, there was a small, dried mud, glowing statue of a Chinese wizard with one arm extended forwards. The statue acted as some sort of compass that was aimed at Daolon Wong.

"When have my location spells ever failed!? When have any of my spells ever failed!?" Uncle said, taking great offense to Jade's doubt in his abilities, "We're close."

"Good! I can't wait to kick that old geezer's ass!" Jade said as she struck a fighting pose.

"You're going to kick anyone's ass, and don't curse," Jackie chided, "Just stick to me at all times, and don't do anything reckless or dangerous. Uncle can take care of this."

Jackie thought that he should leave Jade on the plane, but he realized that it would be of no use. If he wanted Jade to be safe, he'd have to keep her as close to him as possible. Fortunately, Uncle would be able to easily defeat and capture Wong without breaking a sweat.

When Uncle said that Dalon Wong was near, the plane descended. They were now over rocky terrain, so the plane couldn't land, and the Chans had to parachute down. When they were done, they would have to go to a meeting point marked in Jackie's GPS, fire a flare gun, and wait for the Section 13 airplane to pick them and the runaway wizard up. Some agents offered to go as well, but Uncle rejected their help with his usual, "Magic must defeat magic!"

"Why? Wong doesn't have magic anymore, right?" Jade asked, but got no answer.

The three Chans landed safely on the rocky ground, and continued their journey on foot, following Uncle's magic statue. After an hour-long trek, the statue fell to the ground, and its glow vanished.

"So, about your spells never failing…" Jade said with a smug grin on her face.

"Uncle's spells never fail!" the old man repeated angrily, "If my spell stopped working, there must be some other magical forces interfering with it. Daolon Wong is near."

"Wong can't be the source of interference. He's powerless," Jackie said. His comment earned him a two-fingered slap from Uncle.

"Of course he's powerless! That's why he's looking for a new source of power here, which is interfering with my magic! One more thing! Despite all his knowledge of the dark arts, Daolon Wong is very reckless, so we don't know what kind of new evil he could potentially unleash. One more thing! Whatever he's looking for, it must be hidden, so keep your eyes open. One more thing! Give me your canteen, I drank mine half an hour ago!"

"Uncle, we have to ration our water, we don't know how much-"

"Uncle is old and dehydrates quickly! Do you want Uncle to die of dehydration? No? Then give Uncle your canteen!"

While the two adults kept talking (or more accurately, Uncle kept telling off his nephew about things that weren't his fault), Jade explored the surroundings until she noticed something strange.

It was a light, cold, air current.

And it came from a pile of rocks near her. Upon closing inspection, she found that the air came from a small line between two rocks. And if there was an air current coming from there, that meant that there had to be something under that pile of rocks!

"Uncle! Jackieeeeee!" Jade yelled.

Both men rushed to Jade.

"What's wrong, Jade? Did a scorpion sting you?" Jackie asked, worried.

"What? No! I just found something – there's a small breeze coming from these rocks. There must be something underground!"

Uncle adjusted his glasses, and took a look at the pile of rocks.

"Jade has found something. Come Jackie, remove these rocks so we can take a look what's under them."

"What? But those rocks are massive!" Jackie complained, "Can you at least help me?"

"Help you? You're young and strong, and Uncle is old and weak! Do you want Uncle to break his back? No? Then start removing these rocks!" Uncle demanded.

"Ugh, I wish Tohru was here," Jackie said as he lifted a heavy rock.

"Tch. This wouldn't be such a problem if we brought the Ox talisman, but you guys never want to take the talismans from the Section 13 vault," Jade said as he watched her uncle work.

After ten minutes of hard work (that were like ten hours for Jackie), there was a hole big enough for any of them to fit in. In fact, it appeared to be the entrance to some sort of underground chamber. Jackie turned on a flashlight, revealing a man-made tunnel.

"Okay, let's go," Jackie said, and he and the other two Chans entered the tunnel.

They kept walking, until they reached something akin to a stone door, carved with ancient glyphs and symbols.

"Jackie, do you know what this it?" Jade asked.

"Not exactly. But I think that these symbols were used in the ancient Persian Empire," Jackie said, "Which is odd, since the Persian Empire never invaded the Arabian Peninsula…"

"What does it say?" Uncle asked impatiently.

"It says… something about… genies? And… a great treasure… that is dangerous and… sorry, I don't know the rest," Jackie said in an apologetic tone. Still, he managed to translate enough for everybody to realize that whatever lied behind that door should be left alone.

"Daolon Wong wants whatever is here. We must take it and bring it to a safe place," Uncle said.

"Okay, so how do we open the door?" Jade asked.

Jackie kept inspecting the door, until he found a hidden button between the ancient inscriptions. He pressed the button, and the stone door slowly slid upwards, revealing a huge chamber, filled with pots, chests, and many inscriptions carved on the walls, as well as some paintings. At the other end of the chamber there was some small item on a pedestal, illuminated by a sunray.

Both Jackie and Uncle took a closer look at the inscriptions on the chamber's walls.

"I can't believe it…" Jackie said in amazement, "It really exists!"

"What is this place?" Uncle asked. He was the one usually telling others about the exotic and mystic places they visited, and was a bit pissed that his nephew had hijacked one of his roles.

"The Chamber of Wishes," Jackie said. He then cleared his throat, and remembered what little he knew about that place, "I read about this place when I was in college. A long time ago, there was a powerful Persian warlord named Kur-Asan. Kur-Asan formed a huge army and rebelled against his emperor, but his campaign ended in failure. However, Kur-Asan himself survived and fled into the desert, where he knew he wouldn't be pursued. He spent months traveling through the vast Arabian Desert, surviving by eating bugs and drinking the remaining water from dried oasis. Until one day, he stumbled on a cave. Said cave was the home of a djinn, or genie if you prefer. The genie granted Kur-Asan one wish-"

"One? I thought that genies granted three wishes," Jade interrupted, but upon noticing Jackie's frown, she sheepishly said, "Sorry, continue."

"Kur-Asan wished to be able to recover everything he had lost, and so, the genie crafted a magical ring. Said ring gave its bearer the power to recover everything lost. So Kur-Asan used the ring to recover everything he had lost: his fortune, his lands and possessions… and used them to restart his campaign, sinking the Persian Empire into an age of continuous civil war. When Kur-Asan finally died, they took the ring and hid it in a place called The Chamber of Wishes, hoping that such power would never again be used by black-hearted men like Kur-Asan."

"So that's what Daolon Wong is doing here. He wants to use the ring to recover his powers! AIYAH! What are we waiting for?! We must secure the ring!"

Before Uncle could take another step, Jackie stopped him.

"Uncle, wait! Don't you think that whoever left the ring here, also left some kind of security measure to stop anybody from taking it? We must be cautious. Plus, it's not even clear if Wong can use the ring to recover his lost power."

"And why are you so sure?"

"Because, if the legend is true, the ring can only give you physical, tangible items. If you wished to recover, say, your youth, freedom, somebody who died or the lost affection of a former lover, it wouldn't work."

"I could use that to recover all the stuff I lost in the past year, like my signed Melvin Moose card," Jade said.

"No! Nobody can use that ring! We must take it to Section 13 before it falls into the wrong hands!" Uncle stated.

Suddenly, an explosion threw the trio in different directions, leaving a cloud of smoke.

"You mean… my hands?" a familiar voice said as a figure stepped out of the cloud of smoke and dust. To nobody's surprise, it was Daolon Wong.

Wong stood in front of them, wearing one of his menacing grins. He wasn't wearing his usual dark blue and black robes anymore, but another old robe that was probably brown in the past, but its current color was impossible to discern due to its deteriorated state and the number of patches and open seams. It certainly made him look more like a crazy hobo than a dangerous dark chi wizard.

"Wong!" Uncle exclaimed.

"Yes! Now step away while I claim that ring," Wong said in a menacing tone.

"Or else what, Anti-Uncle? You don't have powers anymore, and it's two martial arts masters and a chi wizard versus an old man," Jade said as she adopted a combat pose.

Wong laughed, "I may have be temporarily depowered, but I still have some aces up my sleeve!"

The former dark chi wizard pulled a small vial of black liquid out of his robe and threw it at Uncle. Uncle was smart enough to dodge it. When the vial hit the ground, it exploded. Uncle avoided the explosion but was hit by the resulting shockwave. Wong then pulled another of his homemade explosives and threw it at Jackie. The archeologist managed to catch it before it could explode.

"No! Stop doing that! You might spring the traps!" Jackie shouted.

"Good idea," the dark wizard said with a wicked grin, and tossed two of his explosive potions at two random spots of the chamber.

If triggering a trap was what Wong was aiming for, he greatly succeeded. The whole place began to shake. Everybody tried to take cover from the debris falling from the ceiling. Soon, they noticed something emerging from the sandy floor. First was a massive, dark brown body. Then, at each side of the body emerged two long arms that ended in pincers that were connected to the main body, and finally, an equally long tail that ended in a stinger.

It was a scorpion the size of a bus.

"Bad day," Jackie said in horror.

The giant scorpion let out a spine chilling screech-like roar, and tried to smash, with one of its pincers, whatever was closer to it, which unfortunately for him was Jackie. However, the Chinese archeologist managed to avoid being crushed thanks to a well-timed jump. Still, the scorpion had targeted Jackie as its main prey, and kept attacking him with its deadly pincers.

"Uncle, some help over here?!" Jackie asked as he used all his agility to dodge the deadly blows.

"The scorpion is not important! Daolon Wong is! You have to stop him from getting the ring!" Uncle yelled.

"I'd do it if this bug wasn't trying to kill me!"

"Okay, okay, I get it! You don't have to get so pissy at Uncle!" the old man said.

Uncle pulled out his stuffed blowfish, and cast a green chi blast at the scorpion. It didn't appear to cause much harm. Still, he kept firing at the scorpion until he caught its attention. However, Uncle hadn't thought that far ahead.

"AIYAH!" Uncle yelled as he ran for his life, being mere inches from being impaled by the giant scorpion's stinger tail.

"Uncle!" Jackie called as he rushed to help him.

"Uncle is not important! Stop Wong!" Uncle demanded once more. He pointed to the other side of the chamber. Wong was quickly advancing towards the pedestal that held the ring.

"Don't worry uncles, I got it all under control!" Jade said in her usual boastful tone as she dashed towards the old dark wizard.

A little girl wasn't going to get in the way of him recovering his powers, Wong mentally declared. He reached under one of his sleeves, and pulled out another small vial of potion, though the color revealed that it wasn't another explosive. Wong threw the potion at Jade's feet, and upon breaking it wrapped Jade in a cloud of green gas. Jade stepped out of the green cloud, her hands covering her mouth and nose, but coughing and with teary eyes.

With Jackie and Uncle distracted by the chamber's guardian (and vice versa), and Jade fighting to breathe, nothing stood between Wong and his prize. He picked up the golden ring, took a moment to admire its form, and finally he placed it on his right ring finger.

"Yes, I can feel its power! With this ring I can recover my lost powers! Now, ring of Kur-Asan…" Wong began to say.

"Oh no, you don't!" Jade said.

The Chan girl somehow managed to resist the poisonous gas' noxious effects and tackle the old wizard. She tried with all her might to remove the ring from his finger before it was too late.

"…I want to recover my lost power!" Wong finished.

The ring glowed with a golden light, while Daolon Wong started to glow with a blue aura. He felt his lost powers coming back to him. Even his clothes changed from the rags he was wearing back to his usual attire. The sudden magic energy Wong was surrounded in blasted Jade away, slamming the girl against a wall.

"…Ouch," Was all what Jade said before blacking out.

The giant scorpion seemed to sense that somebody had touched the ring, because the moment Wong made his wish, it turned around, forgetting about Jackie and Uncle, and attacking the dark chi wizard.

Both Jackie and Uncle rushed to the unconscious Jade.

"Is she… is she okay?" Uncle asked in fear.

"Her heart's still beating, and she's breathing normally. But she may have a concussion," Jackie said. He knew that, sooner or later, something like this was bound to happen. Jade truly felt that she had some sort of guardian angel protecting her from harm, given her record of potentially dangerous situations from which she emerged unharmed, but that was nothing but incredible luck. And luck didn't last forever.

"Wait… look, she's moving," Uncle pointed out.

But Jade did something more than just move. Her body began to glow with a purple aura, and it levitated her from Jackie's arms, much to the archeologist's shock. For a second, her whole body flashed with a powerful, bright blue light, and during that second, Jade transformed into a new being. Her skin was now grayish blue. She had a new set of clothes – replacing her orange hoodie, white t-shirt, and blue jeans, was a purple sleeveless karate gi, knee-long pants of the same color, surrounding her waist was a thick, dark purple silk belt, and she was now wearing blue sandals instead of her usual red sneakers. After her quick transformation, she slowly descended until her feet touched the floor, standing still. She finally opened her eyes; they were red instead of brown.

"Hi Jackie," Jade said, cheerful as ever, "What happened? Did we beat Wong?"

Jackie and Uncle couldn't help but stare at her, dumbfounded. Jade had apparently gone back to being the dreaded Queen of the Shadowkhan, though this fact hadn't dawned on Jade yet.

"Hey, why are you looking at me like that?" Jade asked as she quirked an eyebrow.

"Jade? Do… do you… are you alright?" Jackie asked, barely out of his stupor.

"Other than a little headache, I'm fine, why do you ask?" Jade asked, still oblivious to what was going on. However, she did realize what was going on when she saw that her hands were blue, just as her arms, and probably the rest of her body. "AHHHH! What happened to me!?"

"I don't know! We have to do research, but not now! We have to stop Wong!" Uncle said.

For a brief moment, they had forgotten about Daolon Wong, who was busy fighting against the giant scorpion that guarded the chamber, trading dark chi blasts and pincer slams.

"Hehe, it looks like the scorpion's got that part covered," Jade said with a chuckle.

Wong kept firing energy beams at the scorpion, but its carapace was too thick, and his attacks barely caused a few cracks to appear on it.

"Ha! You're going to need more firepower!" Jade mocked.

However, that gave Wong an idea. His original powers weren't the only source of magic he could claim back with the ring. Placing some distance between himself and the giant arthropod, Wong raised the ring and said, "I want to recover Shendu's Talismans!"

The three Chans looked on in horror as a delighted Wong waited for his request to come true. Out of thin air, two talismans appeared in front of Wong, and landed in his left hand.

"Only Pig and Rooster? And the other ten?" Wong said in anger. Then he remembered that these two were the only talismans he had ever possessed. In any case, they would be enough to get rid of all the pests in the chamber. There would be time to get the other ten later.

The scorpion tried to impale the dark chi wizard with its stinger tail, but Wong used his heat vision to blast it into dust. The scorpion let out a screech-like howl of pain.

"Not so tough now, bug," Wong said with a grin of satisfaction. He looked upwards, and used his heat vision again, this time against the roof, causing several large rocks to fall on the scorpion, killing it, "Now, you're next!"

Jackie adopted a combat pose, and Uncle pulled out his blowfish.

"Jade, go and find a safe place," Jackie asked.

"Awwwww, but Jackie, you'll need me to defeat him!" Jade said, almost begging.

Jackie didn't have time to reply, since he had to dodge another of Wong's eye beams. Uncle cast a chi blast at Wong, but the dark wizard used his telekinesis to levitate some of the debris that fell from the ceiling moments ago to block the attack, then he hurled that same debris against Uncle. Fortunately, Jackie pushed him out the way, and saved Uncle from a long stay at a hospital.

Wong was about to resume the attack, but he was distracted by a high-pitched cry of "HIYAAAAAAAAAAAA!" followed by a strong kick to the old wizard's face that hurled him backwards.

"Don't forget about me, moron!" Jade said as she adopted a combat pose.

"Jade! I told you to stay away!" Jackie demanded.

"Sorry, but it looked that you needed some help," Jade replied smugly.

Wong tried to blast Jade with his heat vision, but Jade jumped just in time to avoid being carbonized. She did some impressive somersaults mid-air, and used the momentum to deliver another kick to the ugly wizard's face. However, Wong used the power of the Rooster to stop Jade mid-air.

"You're going to pay dearly for that audacity," Wong said in a threatening tone as his eyes burned with an orange glow.

Jade struggled with all her might to break free from Wong's telekinetic grip, but to no avail. However, one of her flailing arms suddenly shot a black-edged purple energy beam that blasted Wong in the chest and knocked him away.

Back on the floor, Jade looked at her hands in amazement, with a broad smile, and blinked. "Did I do that?"

The dark energy blast was enough to stop Wong's telekinesis, but it didn't harm the dark chi wizard much.

"I don't how you gained those powers, but it doesn't matter, since neither you nor your uncles will leave this chamber alive!" Wong threatened, though he now sounded more pissed than genuinely menacing.

"We'll see about that!" Jade said as she tried to cast another dark blast at him. The key word being "tried", since nothing came out of her hands. "Huh?"

Wong took advantage of Jade's momentary confusion, and used his telekinesis to lift her up and hurl her backwards. Fortunately, Jackie caught her before Wong could smash her against a wall.

"Phew. Thanks Jackie!"

"Jade, this is exactly why I told you to hide in a safe place!" Jackie said, a bit exasperated.

"But… didn't you see what I did before?"

"What I saw is that Wong almost slammed you against that wall."

"Ah, touché."

"Now please, stay here and let me and Uncle take care of Wong."

For once, Jade decided to hide and let the three men fight. But she couldn't help but think in what she did a moment ago. She had magic! She didn't know exactly how, but she'd worry about that later. Her uncles needed her help now.

She tried to cast another dark blast, to no success. How did she do it before? She remembered her body overflowing with energy, energy that she used to blast Wong. Although, her body was also overflowing with fear. Could it be that? Were strong emotions the key to unleash her amazing power? She decided to recall moments of anger – the Dark Hand almost turning Jackie into a statue, or when the Shendu-possessed-Valmont nearly killed Tohru with a fire blast, Daolon trying to kill Scruffy…

Yes, it was that feeling of power again. It was working! But those memories weren't strong enough. As much as she loved Jackie, Uncle and Tohru, memories of them in danger weren't enough; she needed something that would make her really angry…

…And she remembered that time Ms. Hartman didn't want to pass Jade's math test with a 4.9 out of 10, claiming that a 4.9 was close to a 5 (the minimal score to pass) but not a 5. Jade felt her blood boil with anger.

Jackie, Uncle and Wong were absorbed in a fight in which neither of the sides seemed to have the upper hand. That is, until Jade decided to join the fight with a battle cry. The Chan girl came out of her hideout in an impressive leap. While she was above the three men, she placed her hands together, and a powerful dark energy beam came out of them, hitting Wong in the chest, blasting him back.

"Aaaaaargh!" Wong yelled.

"Ha! Score for Jade!" Jade cheered as she pumped her fist.

That surprise attack did damage Wong enough to decide he couldn't win this fight. For now it was better to retreat. As the old saying went, revenge is a dish best served cold.

"This isn't over Chans! I'll have my revenge!" Wong said, and then disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

"Yeah, we hear that a lot, you can ask Shendu!" Jade said back at the spot where he had been standing.

Feeling that the victory over the dark chi wizard was thanks to her, Jade turned at Jackie with a really bright smile and said, "Did you see that, Jackie? I totally kicked his ass! I bet that he'll think twice before messing with-"

But Jade didn't finish her sentence. Her body glowed in a bright blue light, turning her back to her previous, human self (and her clothes also changed back, too), and fainted. Worried once again, Jackie went to check his niece's condition.

"It seems she's alright," Jackie said after listening to her heartbeat and breathing, "But we must rush her to a hospital."

"I'll try to craft a healing potion until we can get her to a doctor," Uncle said.

Jackie carried the unconscious Jade in his arms, and he and his uncle left the now worthless Chamber of Wishes, not worrying once about Wong getting away with the ring of Kur-Asan. All his thoughts were on Jade, her wellbeing, and her mysterious transformation.