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.

A/N: Surprise! Yeah, it's me, coming right back with another one. I must say, I have been quite busy lately, but thanks to the help of some friends from work, I have some fee time now, and what better to do with that than writing a bit? Please don't answer that question… Anyway, here is probably the last chapter of the Massachusetts Arc, since I think I'll be able to wrap everything here quite nicely. After the conclusion of the Massachusetts Arc, we will have the Festival Arc, then the Advent Arc, and finally the Awakening Arc, finale of this fic. Now that this has been explained, it's time to get to the chapter. Enjoy your read, and as always, more notes at the end.

Jackie Chan Adventures

Out of the Corner of the Eye

Chapter thirteen

The Deep Wedding

Untitled entry number one

IHAVENOSKIN, IHAVENOSKIN, IHAVENOSKIN, IHAVENOSKIN…

He's inside my head he's inside my head he's inside my head he's inside my head he's inside my head…

T'fhel! Shen'therei!

I just wanted to live! I just wanted to change and be free! Was it so bad? To want to remain around my family?!

The music never ends inside my head! It's BREAKING me!

He never lets me alone! He never lets me sleep! I dream about dried planets, frozen stars and blood leaking out the core of galaxies!

T'fhel! T'fel! Wgha'reit dou'reit!

I have been good… I have obeyed you all… I sold my daughter to one of you…

I HAVE NO SKIN!

AND I CANNOT DIE!

Y'ha-nthlei

It all had started quite simply, back in another world, in another universe. And as anything that would be related to him in the posterior millennia, it had started with water. In the depths of a primitive ocean in a distant planet, to be precise; that was where he had been born... or reborn, anyway. He had belonged to a complete different species once; no very different that what the hominids from this rock known as human beings called fishes. Until the Cthulhi had found the planet that species belonged to and had changed him and his brethren. The Cthulhi gifted them with great intelligence and enormous strength; resistance far beyond the one of their original bodies. And so they changed, evolved; and they started to question things. The first question was pretty simple, yet complicated at the same time; or so it could seem to primitive minds. He was the one to talk, the one to talk first.

"Who am I?"

The Cthulhi looked at him and then moved aside. Then Him entered the depths, the massive, terrible and magnificent form of the Great Dreamer himself. He looked down at the new species his Star Spawn had created and then raised one of his claws, taking the one that had spoken first, like a pebble in a desert.

"You are my Apostles," the Great Dreamer spoke both in mind and sound, his voice making the whole planet tremble and the sea to agitate madly. "My eyes and mouth all over the seas of the worlds I inhabit and dream in. Upon you I grant the name Dagon, and I entrust command over this new whole race, these children from the depth, these Deep Ones."

Dagon. Deep Ones. Yes, those had been the names, the names bestowed by the Great Dreamer. Dagon had been a faithful and loyal servant, and if there was something similar to the Great Dreamer's advisor or right... coil thing; that was Dagon. And in those depths of that primal ocean and that distant world Dagon and his brethren flourished and developed.

Until the Great Dreamer had woken up for the first time.

Then that first world had died, broken into tiny pieces, and the seas hadn't been the same anymore. So Dagon was forced to flee with his brethren by his side into another world and another sea, these ones smaller, where the Great Dreamer had started to dream again; for way longer this time. And so Dagon had time to reorganize and grow. It was in this world that Dagon had been called Lord for the first time. Apparently, these small beings, these creatures that inhabited this new world saw no difference between Dagon and his master. True, Dagon was too a Great Old One, but he was one due to the Great Dreamer's intervention and thus there were enormous differences between him and his master, mainly the ones regarding power. These creatures were so simple, so small... yet they proved with a high ability to adapt, be compatible and also to gather the attention of more of the Great Old Ones, and even of some members of the Court of the Daemon Sultan. With the passing of the years and the centuries, Dagon had found his species accommodated completely, and thus they had been able to grow.

Yet everything had come to an end once more, when the Great Dreamer had awakened again, the stars finally being right. Everything had gone down then, not only the planet, but also the entire cosmos. No more order, no more small beings, the Court unchallenged, even the Hunter had fallen in battle against the Crawling Chaos, destroying various solar systems in the process... Dagon, his consort Hydra and the little remnants of the Deep Ones that had been left, forced to flee to a remote planet in order to avoid the annihilation. Did Dagon feel something akin to love or caring towards his brethren? No, no something as simple as love, but there was a bond. Dagon wanted his species to endure and survive. That was why, when news of the King in Yellow's discovery of a reflection reached him, he had been in awe.

Now he had new oceans, new children, new worshippers, a new Innsmouth. The Design of the Court was there again, but this time was different, way different; a product of the desire of the Crawling Chaos to not lose his favorite toys again, no doubt.

"Father, Mother;" he heard the voice of one of the children, one of the largest ones with features akin to great white sharks; calling for him and Hydra. "Everything is ready for the wedding of young Barnabas and Bai Tza. We have located the humans, and the Herald to."

Dagon's body trembled a bit in something that some would call excitement, a fact that only Hydra was able to notice. Things were moving in a much faster pace than the first time. But after all, that was part of the plan.

"Then start," Dagon proclaimed. "It is time to put all the pieces in movement. Make so that one of your siblings sends word to the Organizer of everything that happens here."

"And be sure to treat the Herald with the utmost respect," Hydra added to her consort's sentence. "The Herald is the key to the Advent, after all. And without Advent, there is no Awakening."

The child bowed in respect and left the two leaders alone in the large hall. Only then, Hydra approached Dagon, curling her coils around him; and the two of them spoke at the same time.

"Now, it is time for a wedding of the deep. A Negative of 八卦 will join the family, and the Festival will enter its main event!"

Inssmouth; entrance to the town

In the road to Innsmouth, a van not very much different from Ratso's was approaching the town. The sun was now reaching its peak, midday approaching. However, due to Innsmouth thick fog, which only grew thicker from dawn to dusk, this didn't do very much in favor of visibility. Only night skies were free of any cloud, and so only under the moon and the stars could you see Innsmouth for what it really was.

The van didn't enter the town per se, instead exiting the main road and stopping over a grass field. The vehicle's engine went mute, and its side door opened. Slowly and a bit clumsily, Ephraim Waite's robotic exoskeleton descended from the van, the jar containing his brain and one of his eyes that served as the spider-like robotic construct's head moving to one side and another.

The driver's door opened next, and this time Francis White descended; the flayed man inhaling deeply, stretching his arms and letting the air from the town to fill his lungs completely.

"Ah, Innsmouth;" Francis said, putting in a nostalgic voice. "We should come back here more often. Why don't we come here more often, Ephraim?"

"Because we have work to do back in Arkham," his friend answered.

"But just smell the air!" Francis said, inhaling again. "Oh, this glorious stench to the children of the sea!"

"I remember you that, due to my lack of a nose, I don't possess any sense of smell;" Ephraim said in a neutral tone. "And the only reason we are here is because your grandson practically ordered us to come and take control of things on the surface. And that happened due to your actions."

"My actions?!" Francis asked quite offended. "You were the one that almost blew them up with a missile! And Joseph wouldn't have known if your daughter could keep her mouth shut! What does it matter to him anyway? As long as the girl is the one returning alive, the rest don't matter!"

"I spoke with Randolph last night," Ephraim told the flayed man. "And it's not only your grandson's request, but also the Black Pharaoh's. We would do well to not upset him."

Francis flinched slightly, his hands becoming fists and then returning to how they were before in the blink of an eye. "So, you're still able to dream."

"Yes," Ephraim answered plainly, deciding to not rub more into that particular wound. He decided to change the topic. "I talked with Pickman too; he and some of the ghouls have been hunting that Fire Demon across the Dreamlands upon the Lord's orders. The dragon has been helping the Chans, the powers they wield are a result of some deal they cut, no doubt."

"You have to give them points for their tenacity," Francis said. "To those demons, I mean. Even knowing how outclassed they are, they continue to try and take a piece of the cake for themselves, thinking that they still can compete for the world. Has Pickman been able to take him down?"

"Not yet;" Ephraim answered, his only eye moving inside the jar. "Apparently, he is very adept into hiding himself."

"Well, at least Pickman gets to do some sport;" Francis said as the two of them entered Innsmouth. The citizens were already in the move. "We could get some too, that little fight under Miskatonic was pretty invigorating;" the flayed man said as he took another deep breath of Innsmouth's air into his lungs. A sadistic grin appeared in his skinless face and he threw his arms up.

"It's wedding time!"

Caves; Jade

"My, my; the little Princess of the Chan family;" Bai Tza said. "How much have you grown."

The underground cave part of the tunnels that travelled under Innsmouth had grown quite quiet after the appearance of the Demon Sorceress. The Water Demon's phrase echoed around the cave, both as a threat and a trivial comment. Jade, still in a combat position, her hands lighted in fire and her eyes narrowed towards the Water Demon. Barnabas and Lily were standing still, the only noise they were producing was the one of her tentacles striking the ground and his gills taking air in and out. How the hell could gills take air too?

"And, those flames are also a surprise," Bai Tza commented offhandedly. "It seems like one of those twelve powers from brother Shendu's collection. So he cut a deal with you? I hope it was just with you. It wasn't, was it? He did cut a deal with Chan. What a fool."

"Says the one who's marrying a… whatever that guy is;" Jade told the Water Demon, pointing to Barnabas.

"Deep One," Barnabas answered. "The name of the species, in your language at least, is Deep One. Or at least that's how the Yithians translated it. Then again, Yithians are known as very good translators."

"Okay, enough!" Jade protested. "Explain to me what the hell is going on here, and in Arkham, and with Director White, or I swear you all are going to be ashes in seconds!"

"Isn't it obvious, my lady?" Barnabas asked rhetorically. "This is a wedding. Between me and beautiful Bai Tza; this night under the moon."

"And you're supposed to attend, and smile, and clap at bro-bro's wedding!" Lily answered cheerfully. "C'mon, Miss Jade, it'll be fun!"

"You should listen to our energetic Lily, Princess;" Bai Tza told Jade, circling around her like a shark around its prey. "After all, you are such an especial guest, Princess."

Jade shot a fireball towards Bai Tza, hitting the demon and making her to dissolve into her water form. However, and as Jade suspected would happen, the Demon regenerated to her usual form once some seconds had passed. Bai Tza laughed smugly. Jade wondered, if she concentrated enough firepower over her, would she evaporate?

"Something wrong, Princess?" Bai Tza taunted her. That damn smile the demon was wearing was really getting in her nerves.

Bati Tza's remark was met with another, smaller shot of fire, this one directed to her arm, which was cut and dissolved into water as soon as it was hit. Bai screamed in pain upon the lost of her limb, but it quickly regenerated thanks to a mass of water that came from a small crack from the ground. Right, the ocean should be just under them.

Great plan Jade, fight the Water Demon near the biggest mass of water in the planet; she thought while looking around, searching for a way to escape. If she turned around and ran out using the same way she and Lily had used… no, it probably wasn't a good idea to turn her back to these ones. Not that she actually liked to run from fights. Well, this ought to be fun; she thought as she accepted her current fate.

"That was for calling me Princess, by the way;" Jade told Bai Tza. "So call me that again, and I swear I'm going to find out how many times you can pull that 'grow back from the water' trick out."

"Stop calling you 'Princess'?" Bai Tza asked, and then a dry laugh escaped her throat. "Ha! Cannot! I have been learning since the King in Yellow destroyed and freed us from the Netherworld. I have been learning, since I found magnificent Y'ha-nthlei. Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, they gave me this new body, and they have taught me well. They taught me about the stars, about the whispers spoke only between planes of existence… and about you." Bai Tza let another laugh out after seeing Jade's expression. "Oh, and this is so precious! You don't know anything, do you?"

Jade quirked an eyebrow, effectively not knowing what the hell was going on. She charged another attack, but then Lily jumped between her and Bai Tza, raising her little arms and some of her tentacles.

"No! Don't hurt her, Miss Jade!" the little half octopus girl begged her.

Ah, damn it!; Jade thought. "Get out of the way Lily. I don't want to hurt you."

"All this violence is completely unnecessary," Barnabas cut in, walking and positioning himself in front of his sister and soon-to-be-wife. He put both his hands at his back, and the Deep One's eye focused on Jade. "I bear the greatest of respects for you, but your struggle is both irrelevant and unnecessary. We don't want to hurt you."

"Well, maybe I want to hurt you;" Jade taunted the Deep One, who narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't know what exactly is going on, but someone that is willing to marry someone like her;" Jade said, gesturing to Bai Tza with her head. "Is clearly not my friend. And you don't know with whom you're messing with here, buddy. My family…"

"Your family," Barnabas interrupted her. "Your family is being dealt with as we spoke. "My cousin Sebastian and the rest of the Choir should be taking care of those two wizards now, and as for those other two in the hotel Boggs and his men should be enough."

"My family can fight whatever you throw at them, you scaly face;" Jade told the Deep One. I'm sorry, Lily; but I'm going to scorch your brother a bit. She created even more flames around her fists and arms. "As much as I can fight you."

This time it was Barnabas who let a dry laugh out. "Oh, I'm very sure your family can handle some of the things we are going to throw at them; that's the reason some of the members of the city have come to the surface. If your family deals with the first wave, they won't get pass the second one. As for you, you aren't a problem at all."

"Wanna bet?" Jade said, clenching her fists in fury. Was this guy mocking her? Oh, she was actually going to enjoy beating the crap out of him.

"The Bastard of Yog-Sothoth send word of your arrival in the moment you left San Francisco;" Barnabas explained, and behind him Jade could see how Bai Tza's lips formed a cocky smile. "He told us how to deal with you," the Deep One said as he approached Jade, albeit his posture denoted that he didn't have any intention of engaging on physical combat. "He told us that it would be as easy as opening a closet door."

Gilman Warm House

This could have been worse, much worse; and Jackie was grateful it wasn't. Sitting on a small table in the hotel's small cafeteria, Jackie and Viper were taking each a simple breakfast composed of dark coffee and a croissant. It wasn't much, and actually Boggs had offered them some kind of dish made out of fried fish and small tomatoes… but they had declined. This was enough. And the fact that both of them were able to sit in the same room, even in the same table; was actually a pretty big step, or at least it was in comparison with their previous 'meetings', if they could be called that. A breakup, more than a year without contact, monsters, fights, and a talk… and here they were again. But it wasn't the same, no. That couldn't be, and both were mature enough to recognize such a thought as the truth. And so, they were cautious enough to make ninety percent of their talk to circulate around trivialities, with the other ten percent dedicated to discover what the other had been up to during the time they had spent without seeing each other. Viper discovered that Jackie's life hadn't changed in the slightest aside from the absence of magic, the archeologist finally dedicating himself to archeology. Jackie, however, discovered that Viper had passed for some short of 'perilous phase' after their breakup; not returning to thieving, but yes basically starting to work as a spy for the government that paid better. She had admitted that it had been in that moment when Joseph White had come to her with an offer.

They continued speaking for long, letting time to pass slowly as they ate and drank. As the minutes went by, the cafeteria started to get more and more crowded; a lot of Innsmouthians entering and asking for coffee. How Boggs was able to attend to everyone was something that escaped to Jackie's intellect.

"Jackie," Viper called for him, and as soon as he looked at her she made a discreet movement with her head to the left. Jackie followed with his stare, and he saw what the woman was telling him to look at.

A gun; a small revolver to be precise, and pretty old in design at that. It was hanging from a small pocket inside one of the customers' jackets. The man didn't seem pretty troubled with hiding it, and Jackie suspected that was because he wasn't trying to. But why would a man come to a hotel's cafeteria with a gun… oh.

Jackie started to look around, this time focusing in the Innsmouthians. All of them were men. Al of them big men in between their thirties or forties; and there were no families, or children, or women. And each one of them had asked for a single cup of coffee. Jackie sighed, and looked at Viper with a look that indicated a bit of exasperation. Not fear, or anger, but simple tiredness at the fact. Viper couldn't avoid smiling at that, making the man to chuckle. Of course the two of them couldn't simply have breakfast peacefully.

"Mr. Boggs;" Jackie called for the old man, who had conveniently finished serving the last coffee he had been asked for. He approached the table he and Viper were sitting at, slowly taking a small memo pad and an old pencil out of his pocket.

"Ya gonna take something more?" the old man asked, scratching the side of his head with the pencil as he did so.

"No," Jackie said before looking at Viper. "Do you want something else?"

"I'm fine," the ex-thief answered. "And we haven't finished our coffees yet." Too much talking between, I think; she added mentally.

"Have you seen my Uncle and the others, Mr. Boggs?" Jackie asked to the man.

"Yer old man?" Boggs asked. "Left with the big guy and the one of the bad suit when ya went to the rooms. The Miss got out after that, and she looked angry. And I mean angry."

"That... was probably my fault;" Jackie answered, but using such a tone of voice that it was hard hearing him over the hustle of the rest of the people. "Did you know where they went?"

"They went to see the Order, of course;" Boggs answered. "Said something about yer job having to do with it..." Boggs scrabbled something down. For the movement of his hand it wasn't some word, but some kind of small doodle. He had no intentions of taking any orders from them, or from any other customer for that matter. The rest of the people in the cafeteria had grown quiet as their small conversation had progressed, and Jackie noted how their bulging eyes were now focusing on both archeologist and ex-thief with not a very kindly intent on them.

"Another question," Jackie said. "Do you know why we are in Insmouth, Mr. Boggs?"

"Aye," Boggs answered. "Ya here for the Book of the Dead, I think. Good ol' Boogs thinks that it's in the great city, though. The only awaiting for yer old man at the Order of Dagon is the choir, and those have pretty wacky magic. They should have their hands full with them, and you with us. Nothing personal, really; I think ya are pretty good people. But these are orders from the great city. Ya have been invited to the wedding, and ya gonna go. Even if knocked out, but ya gonna be there."

Jackie sighed as he took the coffee cup and finished his coffee. At least they had enough decency to wait for him and Viper to finish their breakfasts. "A last question then," Jackie aid. "And this is for everyone in this place. Is everyone sure that he wants to be here when everything happens?"

No one said a word, no one moved, and Jackie let another exasperated sigh out of his mouth. Viper quirked an amused eyebrow to that sentence, putting on a little smirk as she did so; amused over Jackie's words. Sometimes she thought that this man was too polite for his own good.

"Were you expecting that to work?" Viper asked him, not hiding her amusement.

"It was worth a try," Jackie answered. "He made us a discount, after all."

The man that both of them had seen carrying a gun rose violently from his seat, hand quickly moving to the revolver and aiming at them. The next thing he saw was a blur, and then Jackie, moving at super-speed thanks to the power of the Noble Rabbit; punched him in the face. The added speed to the blow was enough to shatter the man's nose and knock him out. Another one tried to attack him by at his back, this one carrying a simple baseball bat instead of a gun. However, it wasn't Jackie but Viper who took him out this time; the woman jumping from her seat and kicking the man on the head.

The rest of the men around started to rush towards them, and the ones carrying guns started to shot. Moving faster than the bullets, Jackie took Viper and jumped behind the cafeteria's bar. The bullets missed their objectives, and the attackers were forced to turn around in order to redirect their charge. And behind the bar, Viper couldn't restrain a laugh, much to Jackie's chagrin. Was she having fun? No wonder why Jade and her connected so well.

Could fighting together help to soften things? In the moment both of them heard the last bullet being fired they exchanged a glance, and then jumped the bar.

It was worth a try.

Esoteric Order of Dagon

"Let us go."

Uncle's demand was met with silence. In front of him, Tohru and Ratso were the members of the choir, all of them lind up in front of the gate of the building, blocking the exit.

"Kaa n'tha'leit;" one of them said. "Jhike' tumek Y'ha-nthlei. Tu'shekna ir'thede."

"He said… he said you can't go;" the woman, the nun; said in a meek tone, standing a few meters away from both groups, trembling slightly. "He said… 'We cannot. You have been summoned to Y'ha-nthlei. And the woman will come too, in order to serve as offering'." The nun grew pale as she let the words to sink in her mind, realizing what the choir's statement implied. "No! That… that wasn't what I agreed to! You promised!"

"Ma'am," Tohru told her. "Please, stay behind us."

"Can I stay behind too?" Ratso asked, frightened by what he knew was an incoming battle. The two wizards had their blowfishes out, both of them already channeling chi to their weapons; Tohru's eyes already in flames with the power of the Pig Talisman. Yet the choir was standing firmly and without any doubt in front of the gates of the cathedral, and their hands, their webbed scaly hands… they flashed in yellow energy from time to time.

"Th'she… th'she shiruh!" a member of the choir, this one different from the previous one, yelled to both wizards, pointing to their glowing blowfishes. This time, however, the nun didn't seem in the mood to translate. Not that it was necessary, it was clear that they were asking them to drop their weapons. Not that they were going to do that, anyway.

"If you want Uncle to drop his blowfish," the elder wizard said. "Then you will have to take it from Uncle's dead and cold hands!"

The choir didn't utter a single more word. Instead, their response to the old man's challenge was for them to take their masks and robes off. Tohru's heart skipped a beat as soon as the robes and masks of the members of the choir hit the floor and their appearance was revealed. It was as if some depraved mind had crafted abominations out of his worst nightmares and had put them in front of his sensei and him.

Their detachment from their robes had revealed a much more sinister appearance. The sight of the six cultists had left way for a group of six tall, humanoid beings that resembled the Humpback Anglerfish that he had seen in the fish market. Each one even had the very same antennae as the animal! And there it was, finally directly in front of him. The unnamed feeling, the complete absence of chi… there it was again, emanating from these creatures, their whole existence an offense to everything Uncle had taught him.

"Th'dehn dhu'adkaan!" they yelled at the same time, and opening their mouths in order to show their fangs, their antennae glowed in yellowish sparks. There was a cracking sound then, and each one manifested a sphere of yellow energy between their hands.

"Tohru..." Uncle said in the most serious tone he could use at the moment. Yes, the sumo knew what his sensei was implying. This wasn't like Miskatonic, where they had a clear escape route. And this time there was an innocent that could get harmed. This was not the time for doubts or fear. His eyes' flames danced violently, and the green energy of their blowfish intensified.

"Yes, sensei;" the Japanese mountain of a man said as the two of them started to advance towards the choir silently. The six individuals did the same. One of them let out a roar, and Tohru let out a battle cry in response.

And then, green and yellow collided.

Gilman Warm House

It's almost as if we were bullying the poor things; Viper thought as she kicked the last conscious man in the head, sending him to Morpheus' arms. The men Boggs had brought were now lying all around Jackie and her, the majority of them knocked out, and the ones that weren't with too much pain in their bodies to actually do something in retaliation. It makes sense, I doubt some random citizens like these are too much of a problem once you accustom yourself to fight things like Shendu, Tarakudo or that monster of the subway, Viper sighed internally. Jackie and I have seen too much to fall for this, especially when he can move at such speed.

Speaking, or more accurately thinking of Jackie, he was now taking Boggs from the floor and putting him over a chair. The man had one eye blackened thanks to one of the archeologist's punches, and he didn't seem in the mood to keep struggling. Jackie moved his hand a couple of times in front of his face to help the old man focus, and then spoke.

"Mr. Boggs, I have another question," Jackie told the man. "Can you tell me what were you intending with all this?" he said gesturing to the defeated men.

"Ya… ya not understanding;" Boggs told him. "They are coming now, and you ain't ready for them…"

"Who is coming?" Jackie inquired the man.

"The ones… the Deep Ones…" Boggs answered. "They called for you… we're supposed to bring you…"

"Where is my family?" Jackie asked again. Boggs just snorted.

"Yer family's alright, they won't risk touching a hair in the Miss' head…" Boggs answered as he lowered his head and looked at the ground. "And yer old man and that big guy… I wonder if… the choir… Oh, dear Dagon, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Jackie asked the man. He was growing impatient; this man was giving him just half-answers. He needed to know what was going on, why they had been summoned to wherever they wanted to take them. He needed to know where Jade was, where Uncle and Tohru were. Were they safe? Were they fighting like he had been? "Boggs, tell me what you are trying to…"

"Jackie," Viper called his name, taking. "Jackie there is a sound."

The archeologist tuned his ears, and he discovered that there really was a sound. Something was making sounds in the upper levels, as if someone (various people, if his ears weren't lying) were inspecting the rooms, moving furniture. Boggs looked relieved upon hearing it, and Jackie understood that the men he had brought to the cafeteria weren't the only enemy inside the hotel.

"More friends of yours?" Jackie asked of Boggs. The old man looked up, and Jackie saw how he was now sporting a truly maniacal grin.

"No… it's them… they have come…" Boggs was sounding hopeful now, and he gave Jackie a nasty smile. "Don't you remember? Innsmouth takes care, that's this place's motto. Now the real Innsmouth is here to take care, Mr. Chan. If I were in yer shoes," Boggs said as he looked to the ceiling. The sound had started to get stronger and stronger… as if someone, a really strong someone was pounding the floor of a room with the intention of piercing it. "I would start running."

There was a strong cracking sound, product of the wood of the ceiling breaking. From the hole that had been opened in the ceiling, or more accurately from the one that had been opened in the floor of one the rooms that were over the cafeteria, dropped something.

It was something large, bigger than both Jackie and Viper; something that should be around Tohru's height, and that was considerably thinner, albeit with the defined musculature of an athlete. Nothing to cover the creature's body, not even a loincloth over its modesty. Scales of a mixture of deep blue and green adorned the creature's skin, covering its entire body. And albeit the form in which it stood, over its hind legs, resembled something vaguely humanoid; the rest surely was not. The rest resembled a fish, an average looking common shark mixed with a human being, if such thing was possible. The creature looked in the stunned Viper and Jackie's direction, and then overlooked the defeated Innsmouthians. The creature proceeded to roar then, and more noise came from the upper levels. Coming closer, closer, closer…

"Tiger," Viper said, calling Jackie directly by the nickname she had once given him. "Jackie," she called again. The noise was coming closer, closer, closer… unintelligible sounds, as if the ones produced by animals, came from the hole. "Run!" she yelled.

Using the power Shendu had granted him, Jackie moved at super-speed, taking Viper like he had done when they were under the Innsmouthians' previous attack. Only that, instead of hiding behind the bar, Jackie opted to run out of the hotel into the town's streets. It proved to be a bad idea.

Innsmouth's townsfolk had gathered all around the hotel, just standing there, looking at the building. The affably people that Jackie had seen hours before were gone, replaced by emotionless individuals, men and women alike, forming lines around the building, not willing to let them escape. Jackie let Viper in the floor at his side. There were too many of them, and he didn't know if he could go through them all.

"You can't go away," the townsfolk, the entire townsfolk, spoke in unison. "You have been summoned, you can't refuse. You have been summoned by Father and Mother, you can't refuse. No one refuses."

"There is always a first time," Viper taunted them, and the townsfolk proceeded to produce a really uncomfortable sound with their throats, similar to a scream.

They heard something breaking behind them, and turning their heads around, saw the creature from before tearing the hotel's door apart, flanked by other two similar creatures.

"Nobody refuses the Deep Ones!" the townsfolk said.

From the hotel's rooftop, Jackie and Viper saw five more of those beings, standing with the claws of their feet and hands nailed in the stone and waiting to attack. Jackie had been at numerous disadvantages before; his many fights with the Shadowkhan were proof of that. But these… these weren't some shadow ninja that went poof after some hits or the proper spell. These creatures looked as physically strong as Drago was. Not to mention the townsfolk was still standing there, creating a flesh barrier. If he ran in circles he could create a tornado, but then the people…

"Tiger, hey!" Viper called for him. "Listen, I don't know what you are thinking right now, but we have to fight. Jade and the others are in very similar situations, and if we don't get this soled as soon as we can, then we can't go and help them."

"Yes, yes; thanks;" Jackie thanked the woman, and then adopted a combat position. Good news, the townsfolk didn't seem like starting a fight right now. Bad news, the creatures, the Deep Ones had been called, seemed pretty eager to do so.

"Let them attack first, let them make the first move;" Jackie whispered to Viper, who nodded as the two of them waited for the creatures in defensive positions. For entire minutes, the Deep Ones just looked at them without moving an inch. Then the first creature attacked.

Viper and Jackie jumped each one into opposite directions to evade the attack, and then counterattacked. Jackie hit the Deep One in the head, Viper aimed for the ribs. It proved… more efficient than any of them had thought, actually. It wasn't enough to take the creature down, but it did hurt, something proved by how the creature was forced to go a couple of steps back before attacking again. The real problem came when the other two Deep Ones decided to jump into the fray, and Jackie and Viper had to rely in avoiding attacks more than making them. However, Jackie noticed something very weird about the way the creatures were moving. Decades of training and practice in martial arts had taught him how to read a body… and these bodies were telling him 'we are going easy on you'. Looking up for a brief moment, he noticed that the ones over the rooftop weren't moving. 'You have been summoned', they had told them. And realization came to Jackie as a current of fresh air.

"Viper, they can't kill us!" he yelled.

"What?!" Viper asked in confusion.

"They need us alive!" Jackie explained. "They won't risk harming us to death!"

Viper smirked. "But we can do that, can't we?"

The two of them adopted a more offensive stratagem then, Jackie fully using his super-speed to attack a Deep One without letting the creature space to breathe or defend itself. Viper was dealing with the other two, evading their attacks and making sure that each one of her blows counted. She was attacking ribs and vital bones and muscles, and albeit she wasn't sure that these beings' physiology was similar to humans' (their bones were far denser and harder to broke, for an instance) she was sure that she was actually making them feel some pain. She looked over her shoulder to see how Jackie had stopped using the power of the Rabbit Talisman and was charging towards what seemed to be a pretty damaged and equally tired creature. She jumped backwards in order to let the other two Deep Ones behind, and rushed to Jackie's aid. Coordinated to almost perfection, both of them punched the creature at the same time, sending it to the ground. The Deep One fell with a loud sound, back against the ground, conscience lost. This end resulted into the upset roar of the other two creatures in ground, and the same could be said for the ones in the roof top, two of them jumping from it and landing near their injured companion.

"Ready for another round?" Viper asked, panting a bit, to Jackie.

The archeologist, also panting slightly, looked at Viper with a funny expression. "Sure, but that one was very hard to bring down. If not for the power of the Talisman Shendu gave me, and the fact that they aren't fighting to their best… I don't know if we would be here."

"I will separate another one from the main group," Jackie said as he started to run, the power of the Rabbit slowly starting to power him. "Distract the others so I can- ARGH!"

Jackie didn't get to finish his phrase. He fell to the ground in pain, electricity coursing through his body as he had been hit by a bluish lighting in the back. Viper rushed towards him, kneeling at his side. When she touched him, she got a very nasty, although short lived, muscle cramp.

"It's not so easy to move at such speeds with electricity coursing through you, eh boy?!" she heard a voice. A voice she had heard before.

Oh God no; she thought as she looked at the townsfolk, who were now separating in two crowds, letting two figures pass. In a few seconds, Francis White and Ephraim Waite were standing in front of the Innsmouthians, and the flayed man's hands had still the remnants of the lightning he had fired towards Jackie.

"Who…?" Jackie tried to ask as the attack started to lose its effect over him. Viper put a hand over him, indicating to him that he should rest.

"The creeps from Miskatonic," Viper told him. "Two of them, at least. The one with the red face is White's grandfather, I think. The other three weren't available?"

"The Pickman boys are better in Arkham," Francis explained. "Their momma lives there, after all."

"Our presence here is enough to make things to run appropriately," Ephraim said. His only eye, floating in the tank, looked then at the Deep Ones. "I presume you can take it from here?"

"Oh… Where's the fun in that?" Francis asked, shooting a cruel glare to Viper and Jackie. "Are you really going to surrender like that?"

"Don't taunt them, Francis;" Ephraim spoke. He knew his friend, he knew of what he was capable of. The brain in a jar had gained much better insight thanks to the process the Mi-Go had put his body through, mainly because without the appropriate body parts to stimulate the appropriate brain areas he was much more focused in the now. And right now, that insight was telling him that Francis wanted to do a stupid thing. Both of them, so similar once, had grown into polar opposite directions since aiming the means to transcend death. Ephraim had grown more logical, Francis (appropriately for whom he had gained his immortality from) had grown chaotic. Unpredictable, violent, erratic… and right now, that unpredictable, violent and erratic man was looking at the two individuals in front of him with a cruel gleam in his eyes.

"Oh, but why not?" the flayed man replied, charging another lightning bolt in each of his hands. "I mean, it's not like their wizards are locked in a fight with the choir, and it's not like that girl has met with Barnabas and the bride… Oh, wait a second. They have done exactly that!"

"You son of a…" Viper started to curse, but Francis shot one of the lightning bolts towards her, electrocuting the woman and making her scream. The flayed man laughed.

And that act made Jackie to stand up and rush towards the flayed man at the fastest he could move. He kicked Francis in the gut, making the man to bend over himself, to then proceed to raise both arms over him and deliver a pretty nasty blow in the man's back. Francis answered with only laughter. Jackie answered to that by putting his knees over the man's body to prevent him from moving. The archeologist applied his super-speed only to his arms, and started to punch Francis the hardest he could, mainly in his face, but also in his torso. But the only thing he got was more laughter.

"Silly boy," the flayed man laughed as he charged electricity. "I can't die, you idiot!" Francis shot a stream of lightning from his whole body, sending Jackie away. He got to his feet pretty quickly, hitting his left side, and then spitting a fair amount of blood. "I think you broke something there, or made one of my ribs to pierce an organ…" he spat more blood. "But then again, you could cut my head, and I would still be alive," he let out a sinister laugh then. "Immortal doesn't mean able to heal everything, you know? Isn't that funny?"

Francis shot even more lightning towards Jackie and Viper, making them scream. One of the Deep Ones roared at him, saying something in Aklo to the flayed man.

"Alive! Doesn't mean! UNPUNISHED!" Francis yelled, electrocuting both adults with his magic.

"Francis, that's enough;" Ephraim called for him. "You will kill them both at this rate."

"What does it matter?" Francis asked, and his voice sounded depressed now. "Considering what is coming, I would be making them a favor. And they wouldn't appreciate it. Would you?!" Francis shot even more lightning. "No, how could you appreciate it? The present that is death! If I kill you… if I kill you… would the Pharaoh grow angry? Would he… would he kill me?"

"Francis," Ephraim called again, and he prepared one of his exoskeleton's weapons. If Francis needed to be taken down…

"Frank," another voice called for him. "Frank, please stop that."

The lighting stopped, and Viper looked around with only one eye opened. Jackie had lost consciousness due to the electricity, and Viper was barely holding herself conscious. Behind the flayed man and from the same way Francis and Ephraim had come from; stood now another of the creatures, but Viper could see that this one was female. For starters, this one was female, thinner and more stylized than the other ones. That didn't say very much in its appearance favor, though. It looked as monstrous as the others. Except this one had platinum scales.

"What are you doing here?" Francis asked aloud.

"I live here, remember?" the female creature answered. Her voice was a mixture between a human voice and the creatures' barking. Yet the way she moved resembled more the one of an old and tired woman that the one of a monster.

"How did you know I was here?" Frank inquired her.

"Asenath told our daughter," the female creature answered. "And Wilma told me. We still have our ways of talking to each other; I hope you haven't forgotten about that." Francis grunted. The female creature approached him, putting a webbed, scaly hand over his shoulder. "Could you at least look at me, my dear?"

Wait, our daughter? Viper thought. My dear?

Francis doubted himself for a few seconds. Then, slowly, he turned around and eyed the female creature, whose webbed hand left the man's shoulder and stroked his chin. Looking at both of them, Viper could appreciate how this creature was a bit smaller than any of the other creatures, and she stood only a few centimeters taller than the flayed man.

"Hello, Lavinia;" Francis told her as he stroke the back of her head in the same fashion she had done it with his chin. "Hello, my love."

"Look at you, Frank;" the female creature, Lavinia, said as she approached both Jackie and Viper. "This is what you have been reduced to?"

She shook her head at the sight of the two defeated humans. "You had a lot of failures, Francis White, you were a bit arrogant, you were… pretty dirty in the bedroom, but not that I minded that. Yet you were a good husband, you were a good father;" she commented. "But you never were a petty man, not like this."

"You left me," Francis said. "When I became... this," the flayed man said pointing to his body. "You left me, Lavy."

"I left you because I had to," Lavinia said. "You could have come, but you were afraid. Fear was the reason you took the Pharaoh's offer of immortality, actually; because you were afraid of losing me and Wilma. And look where that took you. You could have come with me, and instead you choose to stay behind, without skin, your mind breaking as every day passed. And now here you are, trying to play your last card. These ones are important, both for our grandson and Lord Dagon. Please, Frank. Think about what you are doing."

"Argh!" Francis yelled, and he spat more blood on the ground. "Fine! But only because you told me, Lavy!" Francis yelled as he turned around and left the place. Ephraim followed after a short while, but not without directing a last glance to Lavinia.

"Thank you," Ephraim said. "I don't know what would have happened if he had killed them."

"The Pharaoh wouldn't have killed him," Lavinia stated. "What he did to Frank was just a joke for Him, I fear what could happen to my husband if left to His anger." The Deep One shot a quick glare at Viper. "The'dio she'thionaa;" she told the other Deep Ones, and the last thing Viper saw was one of the creatures' hands covering her eyes.

Esoteric Order of Dagon

Yellow and green, with the occasional mixture of orange thanks to the power of the Noble Pig; danced violently in the cathedral that served as a church for the Order of Dagon. Uncle and Tohru fired their spells at the choir, and the sextet of Deep Ones answered with more attacks. The blasts struck more furniture than anything else, one party able to block and redirect the attacks of the other. Tohru didn't like it; it seemed as if the choir was more focused in losing time than in actually fighting and killing them. The choir was clearly playing the defensive, and if he were a more arrogant man, he would think that the fact that the two of them were fighting against six opponents and not losing in the blink of an eye was thanks to their honed skills. But Tohru, humble as he was, knew the limits to his abilities, and thus he knew that these creatures were, for lack of a better term, 'playing nice'.

Uncle had reached the same conclusion. The elder had quickly realized that these creatures operated in the same kind of strange magic that the flayed man under Miskatonic, and thus he knew that chi magic wasn't efficient against them. Of course, chi magic wasn't the only discipline that used magical arts in order to accomplish something. There was western magic too, based more in enchantments and manipulation of raw energy than in the use of potions. Heck, even within chi magic itself he had only completely mastered the Chinese variant! But this magic didn't feel human or even part of demonic disciplines. It felt so… alien.

"Thaanke!" one of the members of the choirs yelled, and the other five put themselves in front of him and raised a yellowish dome of energy around them Tohru and Uncle took the opportunity to focus their attack completely in the dome, and meanwhile the member of the choir not focused into the casting took his hands to his temples, his antennae rising and glowing from time to time, as if he was communicating with it.

After several moments, the Deep One stopped whatever he had been doing, and then pointing to the two wizards. "Aha'entile! Mannega! Mannega!" the creature yelled in that weird language, that Aklo. "Mannega!" he yelled again, and the dome of energy disappeared, the six members of the choir stopping any attack they had in mind. Seeing this, Tohru stopped his attack too, and Uncle did the same. It would be good to catch a breath, more than anything else.

In that moment, the member of the choir that had last spoken raised an arm and extended his index finger towards the ceiling. From the tip of his finger extended a dome of energy that quickly became a spherical window in the air. After a few seconds, and to Uncle and Torhu's horror, Jackie and Viper's unconscious form appeared inside the dome.

"Ahentey garu'ii! Than'nagr haaveska thoeit!" the member of the choir, who seemed to be the one directing the others, spoke.

"He… he said…" came the voice of the nun, having found cover near some pillars alongside Ratso. "He said… 'We have your family! You will surrender and come with us!';" the woman explained.

"It's a trick," Uncle declared, gaining a worried glare from Tohru.

"Sensei…"

"How does Uncle know that creatures aren't lying?!" the elder inquired, his grip over his blowfish weakening as his hands trembled slightly.

"Thasu deeeringek faalsh'et?" the same creature asked with what Tohru could discern as a smug tone of voice.

"He asks 'Are you going to take the risk?';" the nun translated.

Uncle dialoged with himself for a few moments before looking to his former apprentice. Both of them threw their blowfishes to the ground shortly after that. Then four of the members of the choir surrounded them, other one directing himself towards Ratso and the nun, taking each one with one hand and dragging them to the center of the circle, even if the nun's screams of terror bothered him. Once every human was in the center, Uncle directed a hating glare towards the Deep one that seemed in charge of the choir. The creature answered with quite the nasty and arrogant smile.

"You win this battle," Uncle said. "But not the war."

The Deep One emitted a sound akin to a laugh. Then there was a yellowish flash. And everything was enveloped in darkness.

Y'ha-nthlei

Jackie started to come to his senses mostly thanks to the pain that his body was feeling. He felt as if someone had given him the fight of his life. Moving slightly over his back (he was lying over a cold, metallic surface, if his sense of touch wasn't messed up) he noticed that he hadn't been handcuffed, or anything like that. He started to remember slowly, how Viper and him had fought against those Innsmouthians and then those creatures. Deep Ones, they had been called Deep Ones. He remembered a lot of pain from a flayed man's lightning, and then nothing. Considering the pain some of his body's areas experimented every time they came in contact with something, he supposed the lightning had burned him.

He opened his eyes and incorporated slowly, looking at his surroundings. He was in what he supposed was some kind of cell, judging by the total lack of furniture or decoration, and the fact that the hexagonal entrance was sealed with some kind of yellow energy field. And he wasn't alone. All around the cell, lying on the ground as he was moments before, was his family. Plus Ratso, Viper and a woman he didn't know, who actually was the only other one conscious, curling into a corner and crying babbling incoherencies. He supposed that talking to her would be meaningless. So instead he decided to wake up the others. One by one, Jackie shook all of them, and they slowly started to come to their senses.

"Whoa…" Ratso said. "I had the weirdest dream… I was with Chan's old man in this weird church of this weird town, with this weird fish-people… Oh," Ratso said as he took conscience of his current predicament. "Oh right, it was true. Nevermind, I should be accustomed to the weird by now."

"What happened?" Jade asked, rubbing the side of her head. "Ah! Lily, and that monster, and…!" she looked around. "Where are we?!"

"Aiyah… keep it down, Uncle is trying to get the headache out," the elder told the teenager as he tapped in the power of the Horse, making the pain to go away. "Is anyone injured? Does anyone need to be healed?"

"Yes, actually;" Jackie told his uncle, who proceeded to use his powers to heal him, making the burns to heal and close quickly. "Thank you."

"What happened?" Jade asked again, this time referring to what had happened to the others more that to the situation they were all in.

"Remember that talking brain and the skinless man of Miskatonic?" Viper said. "Well, they were here. One of them electrocuted Jackie. And there were also these incredibly wrong fish-things…"

"With scales and fish features but humanoid?" Tohru ended for her. "We met some of them in the Order of Dagon. They were… quite adept in magic."

"I suppose you didn't find the Necronomicon, right?" Jackie asked Tohru, who shook his head in negation. Yes, that would have made things too easy.

"That's not even the first of our problems," Jade told the others. "Agh…" she rubbed the back of her head again. It was hurting a lot. Maybe they had took her out from behind? She didn't remember exactly how she had ended like that. "Bai Tza is here too."

"Water Demon is in town?! Aiyah!" Uncle shrieked. "This is very, veeery bad news! Uncle doesn't have the means necessary to exorcise her from host!"

"There's no host, Uncle;" Jade explained. "She is the same as when we first met her. And she's marrying one of those… Deep Ones," she said, remembering the name.

"But… but…" Uncle said, sitting and rubbing his temples. "That's ridiculous! For Bai Tza to gain her body back… even if she found a body similar to hers and transformed it, she wouldn't be the same!"

"She said that they gave her a new body," Jade said. "Oh and remember that Lily kid we met in Dunwich? She's half octopus, and her brother is Bai Tza's freaking groom. Is almost as if the whole town has been playing us for idiots."

"You are nothing but idiots…" they heard the nun said, who had stopped whimpering and now was looking at them with anger. "Do you know where we are?! This is Y'ha-nthlei! The great city of Father Dagon and Mother Hydra!" The woman fell to her knees and put her arms around her head. "This wasn't supposed to be like this! I was supposed to learn and then marry a member of the choir! I was supposed to carry the sea's children! And now… they said I will serve as an offering!" she returned to the previous whimpering again, letting the Chan Clan and the rest with a very confused impression.

"She wanted to marry one of those fish-freaks?" Ratso asked, not hiding his disgust. He was always been a man with a lot of imagination, and right now he didn't like it.

"And here I thought Viper was the only one with bad taste for men," Jade commented, earning a glare from Jackie." What? I'm still angry at you."

"Jade," Viper tried to talk to the teenager, but she supposed this was not the time for such themes. "Okay, magic geniuses, how do we get out of here'"

"I don't know," Tohru said. "Sensei."

"Right," Uncle said, standing up and approaching the energy field. He inspected it for a few seconds, and then touched it, getting a small crap in his fingers. "Tohru, fire power of the Pig into this;" he instructed the sumo, who proceeded to do just that. The energy of the eye-beams struck the 'door', but the field absorbed it and redirected the enrgy to somewhere else. "Uhm, clever," Uncle commented. "This energy field is connected to something else, like a battery. Yet it feels magical. Technology and magic bend together, uhm…" Uncle mussed a bit. He had heard of the art of Alchemy, the bending of magic and science, but the information on that was scarce. "There is no way out."

"And?" Jackie asked, just for the elder to sit down.

"And now we wait!" Uncle said, dope slapping his nephew. "If fish-monsters wanting us dead, we would be dead already! Are we dead? No? Then we wait for whatever they want us to do and then we react!"

"Patience is indeed a virtue," a voice said from the other side of the energy field. "But I don't like you calling us monsters, little man."

Looking at the cell's entrance, all the people there saw the guise of Lavinia Whateley, standing in front of the cell and surveying all of them. The female Deep One looked a bit displeased at the fact that the nun was there. That felt unnecessary, the nun had been loyal to them, and she didn't deserve what she thought they were going to do to her.

"You," Viper said to her. "You are the woman from before."

"Yes I am;" Lavinia told her. "You can thank me later."

"Thank you?! For what, kidnapping us?!" Viper told her, but Lavinia laughed at her indignation.

"If I didn't put a stop to Frank, he would have killed you both;" Lavinia said. "So yes, I think you should be thankful to me for stopping my husband."

Viper didn't utter any more words, instead deciding to cross her arms and sit down. Jade, however, remembering that that 'Uncle Frank' from Miskatonic was the Director's grandfather; put some pieces together.

"You are the Director's grandmother," she said, remembering about Dunwich's paintings. "Lavinia Whateley."

"Lavinia White Whateley thanks to marriage, Princess;" the female Deep one answered, making Jade frown.

"Don't call me 'Princess';" the teen threatened.

"Then how do I call you?" the Deep one asked politely.

"Jade."

"Then, hello Jade;" the female Deep One said. "You can call me Lavy if you want to. And yes, Joseph and Jonathan White are both my grandsons, in the same vein Wilma is my daughter. And before you ask, I didn't always look like this. I was fairly human-like when Francis and I had our child."

That doesn't make it better, Jade thought. Ew, ew, ew… What's wrong with people wanting to screw with fishes in this town?

"What do you want?" Jackie asked of the Deep One.

"Talk a bit," Lavinia answered. "I'm the only one, aside from Pickman, that hasn't met you personally, until now. We have a bit of time before the wedding starts, and then I will take you there."

"Why do you think we will cooperate?" Tohru asked next, much to the woman's enjoyment.

"Because you still want the Necronomicon, and we have it;" Lavinia said. "And don't get me wrong, we want you to take it. So, if you play nice, you come to the wedding and be good guests, then you will be able to walk out of Innsmouth without any problem."

"This was White's idea, wasn't it?" Jackie asked the woman. "I'm not the smartest man in the world, but I can put two and two together. Mr. Banski, the reason the Book of the Dead is here… it's all connected, and it all goes back to White. This was his plan the entire time. To make us to get the book for him."

"If he wanted the book directly he would have it already, that's how he plays. He probably orchestrated this alongside Carter and the Thousand Faced God;" Lavinia told the archeologist. She then shook her head. "My husband has grown quite insane, but deep down, he still loves me, he still cares for me, for our daughter. Joseph is… Joseph is his father's son, the son of the Key and the Gate; with what being half-human entitles mixed within him. He should be unable to feel anything for anyone else by now, no matter how much he says otherwise, how chivalrous he acts. With every year that passed he grew more and more curious and less and less caring for others, and he wanted to explore his abilities. He cut a deal with the Black Pharaoh, and now is playing games within His games. And that means that he is able to keep up to His games. No Mr. Chan, sending you here was because we wanted to met with you all. I haven't met with a Chan in decades, but it's comforting to see some pattern in your face, little one," the Deep One told Jade, who was growing more and more confused with every second. "Yes, the form of the chin, the nose, and of course the way you look. And he was always a pretty man, no doubt about that."

"The hell are you talking about?" Jade asked as she approached the door. What the hell was this crazy lady talking about? She had met a Chan before? What kind of idiotic thing was that?

Noticing the girl's confusion, Lavinia's eyes travelled over the room until they met Uncle's. "Ah, someone has been keeping some secrets."

"What does that mean?" Jackie was the one to speak now. He received no answer. "What does that mean, Uncle?" he asked into a much more serious tone.

"Nothing;" Uncle answered, making Lavinia to laugh.

"And then they say that my family is the bad one," she commented. "Do you honestly believe that we don't know about you, little man?"

"Silence," Uncle told Lavinia, the elder growing more and more irritated.

"Ah, the righteous man of magic, the just and dutiful elder that sacrifices everything for the greater good… and that let an innocent man to die."

"Silence!" Uncle, having stood up and rushing to the entrance of the cell, spat with anger at Lavinia.

"Do you feel righteous after everything you had to sacrifice?" Lavinia asked. "Is the righteousness a form of atonement? Or maybe you just want to forget?"

"SILENCE!"

"What the hell is going on?!" Jade asked aloud.

"Did you ever meet your grandfather, child?" Lavinia asked. Then she sniffed the air. "I suppose not. Preparations seem to be ready… I will be back."

Lavinia disappeared out of sight, leaving them alone. And as soon as she left, all the eyes focused on Uncle, who was still standing in front of the energy field, hands gripped in fists and his whole body trembling.

"Uncle?" Jackie asked, his voice a whisper. "Uncle?"

"In the Order of Dagon" Tohru answered. "We found a photograph depicting members of the Whateley Project. There was a man in the group, called Jie Chan. Sensei said…" Tohru took air in. "He said that he was your grandfather, Jade."

"What?" Jade asked weakly. Truth to be told, she had never met his grandparents. Her mom usually said that it was something her dad didn't like to talk about, and she respected that. She had never had any great desire to meet them, or to think about them. A part of her actually thought that they had abandoned her dad, and that the reason behind not having any photographs of them in her house back in Hong Kong was precisely that. And now they told her this, this! Her grandfather had turned out to be a lunatic, belonging to an ever bigger group of lunatics! "Explain," she said weakly to Uncle, who just stared at her with guilt in his eyes. "Explain!" she shouted, and some flames escaped her fingertips.

"Jie was my older brother," Uncle finally said. "And he was the oldest of us three, with Han being the youngest."

"That… that's my father;" Jackie said.

"He was," Uncle answered, not without a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Why?!" Jade, completely enraged, yelled again. "Why didn't I know about this?!" she shouted as her hands became involuntarily engulfed in flames.

"I didn't know either," Uncle said. This was a serious matter if the elder had started to refer to him in single person. "For him to be involved in this kind of monstrosity, I mean. Jie… we never were very close with each other, I never really met him properly until I was practically an adult, and for that time he already was a petty man, a hedonist that cared first, second and third for himself. With the passing of time, that resulted in problems for the family. I opened my shop; Han married, and had Jackie with his wife. But Jie… He didn't marry, but there was this woman he had Shen with, albeit he had neglected both a lot. After a few years, Han and I discovered that he had started to do horrible things to people, to innocent people. Things I never knew about… Han and I decided to disown him with young Shen's help, and to handle him to the authorities;" Uncle breathed deeply, and Tohru saw something in the man's eyes. "We lost track of him after that, until we received news about his whereabouts. He had apparently died. And he is better dead."

There is something else, Tohru thought. Something that he isn't telling us. But he decided to not push the matter. The old man had had enough.

"What the hell?!" Jade yelled to Uncle, however. "Why didn't I know about my grandfather being such an asshole?! Secrets and lies, always secrets and lies!" she shouted while pointing to both Uncle and Jackie. "Why didn't you told me?! Why doesn't anyone ever…?"

"Jade, please;" Viper said, approaching the girl and putting her hands over her shoulders. "Please, calm down."

"Calm down?" Jade said again, and this time, instead of enraged, she sounded sad. "That Whateley Project… what they did, what… what does it mean for me?"

"That is a question for another day;" Lavinia's voice came again, and shortly after she appeared by the energy field, flanked by two enormous Deep Ones. "It's time for the wedding."

If Jackie had found himself in other predicament or feeling better emotions, he would be admiring the great and beautifully confusing halls of this, apparently, undersea city. As an archeologist, he recognized that whoever had built this place was an architectonical genius. Also, the fact that this construct could withstand the pressure of the ocean over it was proof of the makers' ability. But he wasn't in the mood to let his passion to come and make him marvel at the sights of this city. He was too confused, and angry, and also suspicious.

Confused over the fact that Jade's grandfather and his Uncle and father's elder brother had turned out to be in league with such monsters. Why? And why hadn't he learnt about it sooner? He was angry over the fact that Uncle had kept those secrets from them, and over the fact of how it had affected Jade. And he was also suspicious; suspicious over the fact that Uncle's story had some holes on it. And Lavinia had mentioned some 'innocent man' that Uncle had left to die. Uncle's story hadn't mentioned anyone that had been left to die. 'Secrets and lies', Jade had said. For years, Jade's whole dream had been to fight for the good in this world. That was the reason, behind all the thrill of adventure, behind all the desire to learn and progress; for her to start being an agent of Section 13. And the man who had given her that opportunity, he had turned out to be a monster. And now Uncle had turned out to have his own share of secrets too. And he himself had omitted to her the details over his breakup with Viper. Ah, shit. Family was supposed to care for one another, but also to be sincere. If there were secrets and lies, what did family matter? So the archeologist supposed that he understood Jade. Too many reveals in a very short time.

The Deep Ones ended up guiding them through the city until they reached an enormous hall, bigger than any boulevard in any city Jackie had seen. The ceiling was made of crystal, and it let the sea and the full moon over it to be seen. Moon? How many hours had they been unconscious? There, legions of Deep Ones, some big and some small, some with features resembling sharks, others octopuses, others crabs… there were innumerable of them. Jackie couldn't contain a gasp of terror.

"Chan?" he heard Ratso's voice. "If we make out of this alive, remember me to never help you again." And Jackie couldn't help but agree with him.

Drums. There were drums sounding, drums across the deep. As soon as Lavinia started to guide them between the legions of Deep Ones, Jackie was able to spot a familiar face between them. Bai Tza, the Water Demon standing in what seemed to be an elevated platform with a Deep One (who Jackie supposed was Barnabas Marsh the second) at her side. In the stairs that connected the platform with the floor, there was a little girl whose lower half was nothing but tentacles. Jackie recognized her as Lily, the little girl that Jade had befriended in Dunwich. And yet another deception. Or maybe not, because in the moment she saw them, she smiled and rushed towards Jade, taking her hands and starting to drag her from the rest.

"Miss Jade! C'mon, we have an especial place for you! Right, Mrs. Lavinia?" Lily said, and Lavinia shook her hands, indicating Jade to follow the little one. "Yeah! Come Miss Jade!"

Jade was dragged, a bit against her will, to the front lines of the Deep Ones, and Jackie noted how Tohru gripped his shoulder in order to contain him. Right, this wasn't exactly the time for stupid moves.

"The rest of the children and i made this for you," Lily told Jade, putting a collar made of teeth around her neck. "They're shark teeth! They'll make you strong!"

"Thank you," Jade answered, not knowing what else she could say.

"Are… are you angry at me?" Lily asked of her, and Jade looked at the little half-octopus girl.

"No," she told her. "No Lily, you're the least I'm angry at." Jade answered, ruffling her hair and making her giggle.

The drums started to grew louder, and the Deep ones roared. "Ah! It's about to start! Bye, Miss Jade!" Lily said, jumping slightly and kissing Jade in the cheek. "It was so awesome meeting you!"

Lily started to run towards the crowd and then Jade saw possibly the most unbelievable thing she had seen in her whole life, and that was saying something. At the other side of the platform Barnabas and Bai Tza were standing, there was a large, enormous lake of water, way bigger than the one in that cave. The water stirred and from it extended an arm not very different than the ones of the other Deep Ones. Except that this was a very big arm, as big and thick as a building. The arm was followed by another of the same size, and the full upper half of the body of the creature they belonged to followed them. A gigantic Deep One that somehow seemed even stronger, mightier, older and more inhuman than the small ones; his scales of a deep, hardened blue, numerous colonies of barnacles all over its skin, albeit none of the attendants was very sure of them being barnacles. But the most astonishing fact about this beast was its size. Jade had seen cargo ships in San Francisco's docks. She was sure that this thing could lift one of those enormous ships between its arms. Another creature exited the lake then, and this one was a serpentine being, as massive as the other one and with multiple heads over its torso. No arms, no legs, just something resembling a serpentine creature of legend, a… Hydra. The two gigantic beasts stretched themselves, and let out a simultaneous roar that shook the walls of the place they were in. All humans attending took their hands to their ears, trying to block the sound so it wouldn't pierce and destroy their eardrums. The Deep Ones, meanwhile, answered to their royals' roar with cheering.

"Dagon! Hydra! Dagon! Hydra!" the Deep Ones, and Bai Tza, cheered in delight. The male one, Father Dagon, raised one arm, and the place grew silent in seconds.

"Guy's enormous!" Ratso whispered, as he couldn't avoid breaking eye contact with the beast's sight.

Jackie's, and for that matter, everyone else's heads started to hurt after a few minutes of staring at the beast, and they looked down. That was Dagon?! Any Demon Sorcerer looked small in comparison!

"Jackie, hey…" he heard Viper. "Hey Tiger, what… what the hell have we gotten into?"

Jackie wasn't sure of anything anymore. The feeling; the enormous feeling of dread he was getting from that beast… Tohru was beyond terrified too, it as if he was a child again, and his mother's tales had come back to haunt him one thousand times worse.

"Today is a day of blessing," Dagon spoke, his voice a calm, cold sound that pictured a dead and calm black sea in the minds that heard him. At first Jackie thought that he shouldn't be able to understand what the beast was saying. Except that he soon discovered he wasn't hearing it by his ears... but inside his head! "Today, tonight; a new member joins the family and an alliance is forged." Oh dear goodness, it was as if nothing could stop that voice! "Tonight, here in magnificent Y'ha-nthlei, we welcome Bai Tza and young Barnabas, of the Marsh family and second with that name."

"Tonight," the other beast spoke. Hydra spoke. Her voice was as dreading and harmful as her consort's was. "Tonight under the stars we celebrate their union and the beginning of a complete new breed of Deep Ones. Let the ceremony begin."

From the crowd of Deep Ones moved one that Uncle and Tohru recognized as a member of the choir. The Deep One made a sign with his webbed, scaly hand, and two other creatures approached the group of humans, grabbing the nun that had been brought with them.

"What?!" the nun asked scared as she saw how she was being dragged towards the altar. "No! Please!"

Jackie tried to jump to her rescue, as did every other human attending; but they were quickly restrained as more Deep Ones took each one by the arms and immobilized them.

"No! No!" the nun screamed in terror as she was forced to climb the stairs to the altar. "I have served well! You promised me! PROMISED MEEEEE!"

Each member of the Chan Clan that had access to magic tried to call upon it in order to stop the Deep Ones... but they found themselves unable to do so, be it simple spells or the power of a Talisman. They struggled, but their chi seemed frozen. Uncle raised his sight to look at Dagon again, even if it made his head to hurt. The two beasts... was their sole presence able to block their ability to use chi magic? How was that even possible?

And so the screaming woman was dragged to the altar. There in front of the Chan family and the hordes of Deep Ones; there before the Father, the Mother and the soon-to-be-marriage... there the member of the choir pierced his claw into the nun's chest, and ripped out her heart, breaking veins and arteries in the process. The nun exhaled her last breath between tears of agony, and her body was throw down the altar's stairs, falling to the floor with no life remaining in her body. Jade, while being restrained like the rest of her companions, was thanks to her position near the altar the one to see the body I full size.

"You…" a weak whisper escaped her mouth. "You… killed her. You didn't need to do that…"

"Neither we needed her alive, child;" Mother Hydra's voice came to her head.

The member of the choir raised the Heart in his hand in symbol of joy, and then he handed it to Barnabas, who gave him a grateful nod while taking it. The member of the choir pronounced then something in Aklo, and Barnabas bit into the woman's heart, his scaly lips becoming red. He handed the heart to Bai Tza, and she did the same, devouring the organ completely. And then they shared a kiss.

Oh god, I think I'm gonna puke!; Jade thought as she tried to take her eyes off the two fish-people making out. The rest of the Deep Ones broke into roaring, their exclamations echoing through the halls Y'ha-nthlei.

"Iä! Iä! Iä, Dagon! Iä, Hydra!" exclaimed the rest of the Deep Ones. "Iä, Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!"

"Yes, dream;" Dagon's voice echoed again in their heads. "Great Cthulhu waits dreaming, but the Awakening approaches, prophesized by the incoming Advent;" the gigantic beast then looked directly at the humans. His enormous hand moved to the side, and the space around the Chans started to fluctuate and warp. "For that and the blessing of your presence, we thank you; Herald. You aren't needed here anymore, go back to the surface. You will be handed what you came here searching for."

Jackie tried to scream, and many of his companions tried to struggle. But that only resulted in vain. The great undersea city around them had started to fade away, and the last thing that he saw was the towering forms of Dagon and Hydra, their sole image making his brain hurt. This wasn't fair, that woman was innocent! An innocent shouldn't die… an innocent should be treated like that. And there had been no enjoyment, no delight in her demise. It hadn't been an act of cruelty… they had used her in the same way someone uses a tool. When he felt the grip of the Deep Ones softening around him, he tried to rush to the altar. He wanted to break that Deep One that had killed that woman… but in the blink of an eye, they weren't in Y'ha-nthlei anymore. No, they were in the entrance to Innsmouth, night having taken over, Ratso's van waiting behind them… with their luggage carefully waiting at its side too. The Chans and their friends looked around, searching for any signal, any other Deep One; or even Y'ha-nthlei's two royals. But the only thing besides them was the sound of Innsmouth itself; the voices of the civilians sounding in the distance and talking while they were closing their establishments to go back to their houses; as if nothing had happened.

The first thing that happened was that both Tohru and Ratso threw up. Uncle tried to use the power of the Horse Talisman to make them feel better, but that kind of power could do very little in regards to a physical effect that had its origins in their heads. Jackie and Viper, alongside the elder; were having the less trouble getting to cope with the experience. And Jade just kept staring at no point in particular. Viper and Jackie approaching her, the ex-thief slowly putting an arm around the girl's shoulders.

"They… killed her, just like that;" Jade aid in a weak tone. "I didn't even know how she was named, and they… they didn't even look at her, or enjoy it. They just…"

"You can't save everyone, kid;" Viper told her, and Jade trembled under her arm, rising a hand and manifesting a small flame in her pal.

"But I want to," she told the woman. "I should be able to."

"Why do you bother?"

"You," Jackie said threateningly as he looked at the newcomer.

"Me," Ephraim Waite answered. His spider-like robotic body had appeared from the own, its many legs walking over the streets and the single eye that was connected to his brain looking at him from the jar. In one of the robotic exoskeleton's arms, was a bundle covered in red rags. The brain in a jar approached them, and handing the bundle to Jackie. "I think you came here looking for this."

Jackie took the bundle reluctantly. Taking the rags off of it, he looked at what they contained. It was a book, a book with golden covers… no, they were covers made of gold. And the pages were made of the very same material. A brilliant, golden book that seemed to cast light in its own… and that was beating. There was a heartbeat in the book, a beat that Jackie could feel against his palms. And if he listened closely, he could hear some whispers too. The book was beating and whispering… it was alive. And Jackie knew exactly why.

"This is the Necronomicon," Jackie said. It wasn't a question, it wasn't a doubt. In the moment his hands touched it, he knew that this book what he and his family had been looking for.

"Yes, this is the Book of the Dead;" Ephraim answered. "Take it, it's yours now."

"I'm not White's delivery boy," Jackie said with anger, almost throwing the book to the ground. But he didn't do it. The heartbeat was pleasant.

"Be it you or any other…" Ephraim explained. "The Book will end in San Francisco. That is fate, and that I understand as a man of science. What you do, what you try to do, or think, or hope for… it is irrelevant. That same book you are holding, that same book and the Whateley Project… they were a shinning ray of hope for men like me. The fact hat we men of science didn't have to be constrained by morality, the fact that there are so many, many secrets to unveil… That is this universe's truth."

"You killed that woman," Jade spat hatefully at the brain in the jar. "And those girls Uncle and Tohru told us about!" her hands engulfed in fire. "And you are telling me, that you justify it, by saying is some short of universal truth shit?!"

"It is," Ephraim answered. "The universe cannot care about you, it never did, it never will. You will understand, after some time;" Ephraim's only eye looked at Innsmouth. "Francis is going to spend some time with Lavinia here, so I suppose I have some free time. Do as you please with the Necronomicon. Perhaps it will unravel some mysteries for you: Until next time;" and with that last sentence, Ephraim's body emitted a sound and it jumped in the air, losing himself in the streets of Innsmouth once it landed.

In the moment he disappeared, jade took the Book of the Dead from Jackie's hands, threw it into the ground and shot a fireball with it. The Necronomicon, however, didn't get burned. Truth be told, it was made in gold, not paper. After a couple more fireballs, Jade desisted and yelled at the sky in pure impotence.

Jackie took the book from the ground and covered it again in its rags. He then handed it to uncle, who took it with extreme precaution, as if expecting for the book to burn him to nothingness. Tohru and Ratso seemed to have recovered already, and thus Jackie headed for the van, starting to get their luggage inside.

"What do we do now?" Viper asked of him.

"We go back to Boston, and then back to San Francisco;" Jackie said as his eyes flashed in a balanced mix of anger and determination. "And we put a stop to whatever White has planned to do. No matter what."

Without saying anything else, they took their luggage and entered the van. Ratso ignited the engine shortly after. And so they left Innsmouth behind them. Nothing else seemed more pleasant.

The Dreamlands; Unknown Kadath

This place is insane; Māra the Sky Devil thought as he walked through the circling, twisting and ever moving halls and stairs of Unknown Kadath. He had tried flying before to get to his destination, but the city just kept changing and changing. There had been a moment in which he had been forced to walk backwards in order to advance forward! White had sent him here, saying that someone, a very big and important someone, wanted to talk with him. But how was he going to talk if he couldn't find the right direction?! White, damn it; you could at least had given me a map!

"Excuse me," the Sky Devil heard, and his talons nailed in the floor out of the surprise. It wasn't easy to surprise him, not since the fusion. Looking up, he saw a man with pale skin and black hair looking at him while standing on the ceiling as if it was a floor. "Are you, by any means, Māra?" the man asked.

"Yes," the Sky Devil answered plainly. "And you?"

"My name is Randolph, Randolph Carter;" the man said. "Please follow me; the Lord is waiting for you."

Not wanting to get lost again, Māra followed Randolph, flying until putting his talons in the ceiling (which become the floor then) and walking after him. The man guided him until they reached the same enormous, circular hall in which the Crawling Chaos normally received his visitors. Walking until the edge of the bridge that hanged over the abyss, Randolph directed himself to Māra.

"My Lord will be here soon," the man said. "He has gone to fly over the Dreamlands in order to relax himself. Please, wait a bit more." Randolph turned around and started to leave, leaving the Sky Devil behind.

"So, uh… your boss can fly?" Māra asked.

"My Lord can do anything," Randolph told him before getting out of the enormous hall.

Shortly after, Māra heard a screech, and an enormous winged creature descended from a hole in the highest point of the hall. It landed just in front of him, a monstrous bat-like being which's lower half looked like the one of a centipede. The being's golden eyes met with Māra's and for the first time since its rebirth as a fusion of two complete separate beings, the Sky Devil felt fear coursing through his soul. The monster noticed this, and closing its wings over, he dissolved into a mass of blackness and took another, smaller shape. And where a nightmarish bat had stood seconds ago, now there was a tall, beautiful bald man with piercing golden eyes and a Pharaoh-like golden beard in his chin, dressed in a complete black suit. And yet Māra was still afraid. Between the memories of Hsi Wu there was the one of what the King in Yellow had made him feel. This individual felt even worse.

"Hello," the man greeted him. "You are that… I'm sorry, I'm horrible for names, and yours is supposed to be kind of important;" he snapped his fingers. "Māra, right?"

"Y-yes…" the Sky Devil said. "What are you?" he asked, the words leaving his mouth almost instantaneously.

"I'm a God," the man answered. "An Outer God to be precise," he extended a hand towards the Sky Devil. "I'm Nyarlathotep."

Māra took the hand and shook it. He felt as f his hand was touching nothing and something at all. This guy wasn't made of flesh and bones, just… something he couldn't indentify.

"Great, introductions gone, let's go to the good part;" Nyarlathotep said. "Now, let me hear it from you. You know what little Joseph is up to?"

"More or less," Māra answered. In any other situation, he would have circled around the answer, toyed with it, and manipulated it to see if he could gain something from this. But not now. He felt as if he couldn't lie to this not-man. "I know what it entitles."

"Yes, it entitles that girl one of your halves is in love with, or was in love with, which makes this whole new you in love with her… such a cheating emotion, love;" Nyarlathotep said, earning a strange glare from the Sky Devil. "Don't give me that look; you know it to be true." Māra didn't say anything, so the Pharaoh continued speaking. "So I suppose you know what Joseph intends to do with her? And what he has already done"

"Yes," Māra answered, one of his fists clenching. "He showed me what he did."

"Good," the Pharaoh answered. "Do you know why?" he didn't get any answer, and his smile widened, the golden of his eyes gleaming as he did so. He snapped his fingers, and the images of several men appeared around him. "A while ago, just a handful of decades; I engineered the creation of something called Whateley Project. It basically was a dating agency between some of my peers and some human beings. I was even there; hidden under the guise of a man named Robert Black, getting sure that everything ran smoothly."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Māra asked, and Nyarlathotep clapped his hands, making the images disappear and letting a sinister chuckle out of his throat. "Or with me?"

"Don't worry; you are going to love what I'm going to propose you. As for the other part, you see;" the not-man explained. "For numerous tries and failures the Project resulted in what a human would refer to as abominations, beings that ate their mothers from within. I refer to them as problematic babies. It was very hard for the Project to product humanoid beings, let alone ones that looked human. And that's not speaking of making them feel human."

"And that resulted in White," Māra said.

"Yes, but little Joseph is just the prototype, that's why he was given the position of Organizer;" Nyarlathotep said while clapping his hands again, materializing the images of a chinese couple holding a baby girl in their arms. "This was, without a doubt, the definitive product. A being that looked, felt and acted like a human, but that is and will always be a child of Shub-Niggurath, a Thousand Young."

"Our beautiful Jade Chan, the Herald."

Author Notes: The Massachusetts arc is done! So I decided to end it with a bomb that I have longed very much to drop. Now this justifies why Jade was seen as a 'don't touch' by the cultist and White, eh? Now, there are probably many readers that figured this out thanks t the clues I left on the story. But for fans of mysteries you have now to figure what happened between Uncle and his siblings. The clues are all there, so try to figure it out! Having said that, next it's the Festival Arc, in which White takes central place as antagonist. And just for you to know, I have not finished with dropping bombs with Jade.

Please, leave a review, and bye bye!