In the darkness, it waited.

For thousands of years it had not-quite-slumbered in the blackness of the center of the earth, half in the engulfing heat and slow-moving magma, half in the spirit realms that hung just beyond the eyes of mortals. It had seldom moved in all that time but still, somehow, knew the goings-on of the worlds it existed in. It felt the flows of the earth shifting like the tides; it felt the evolution of good and evil spirits warring across universes. It knew, seemingly, everything.

Except the details.

In aeons past it had been free to shatter the stars and set worlds ablaze. Now it hung in eternal torpor, sleeping, waking, feeling, waiting.

And then, in the middle of it all, something shifted.

In the darkness, it listened.

.-.-

It wasn't often that they were sent out to get something other than Shen Gong Wu, but ever since Raimundo's promotion to Shoku Warrior and the battle that had come shortly after, the monks found themselves hurtling across the world in an effort to get non-Dashi-created relics with increasing frequency. Usually it was just a matter of collecting for protection, though sometimes Master Fung seemed reticent to tell them exactly why they were going after this or that particular item. And Dojo was never any help, bribes or not. As such, none of them were in a good mood as Dojo soared over the mountaintops toward their next goal.

Raimundo, struggling to stay awake by means of being as obnoxious as possible, leaned against Dojo's neck and stared up at the passing clouds.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"I said no!"

"Are we there yet?"

"For the hundreth time, no! Now cut that out before I make you ride on my tail and believe me, that's always an unpleasant experience."

"Hey, I only asked three times." He flicked some invisible dust off one knee and glanced at his equally tired companions. "Dojo, why are we going after this thing at six in the morning? Couldn't it wait until after breakfast? At least?"

"When Master Fung says we need to get cracking, we get cracking, okay? It's not my choice." Dojo angled himself slightly downward. "And by your definition, breakfast technically counts as lunch. Though I wouldn't have minded a morning snack myself."

Raimundo sighed heavily and shut his eyes against the searing morning light. When the Fung-meister said go, you went. When he said jump, you said how high … especially when you were a leader. He'd always loved being in control, but the level of responsibility the Shoku Warrior position entailed had come out of left field and hit him full in the face. And he wasn't even doing fewer chores!

A little further down the dragon's back, Kimiko rolled onto her side and propped her head up on one arm.

"We barely had time to get dressed, Rai. I couldn't even get a good wig on this morning. Breakfast was totally out of the question."

"Oh no," Raimundo muttered with a roll of his eyes, "not your natural hair, god forbid we see that."

Kimiko flicked a piece of scale debris at him with a scowl.

The argument might have continued had Dojo not suddenly jerked ninety degrees downward and plunged toward the earth, forcing them all to hold on or go flying off. The wind whipped at their faces - and so did the leaves once they broke through the forest canopy. A few wild jerks and awkward dodges later, Dojo hit the ground and slid to a stop at the edge of a clearing. The monks rolled off him in various states of distress.

"Dojo, next time you do that … warn us, okay?" Kimiko groaned, rubbing the ache of a vicious grip out of her hands.

"Sorry, kids. But I got a whiff of what we're looking for and didn't want to miss it." Dojo shrunk back to his standard serpentine size. "I've been practicing, you know."

"What? Your landing technique? 'Cause it really needs work," said Raimundo's voice from somewhere in a bush.

"No, my detecting skills, but thank you very much for the commentary." Dojo sniffed haughtily and made his way toward the clearing, nose in the air. "You never think you'll forget how to do it, but you do get rusty after a while. Especially with all the Shen Gong Wu focus we've had here."

Clay stood up and brushed himself off.

"That's great to hear, partner," he said, "but Rai's got a point - your landin' was about as smooth as a winged pig's."

"Thank you too, Clay."

The clearing wasn't all that clear; there was a lot of tall grass, a number of thin saplings, and here and there were hollowing stumps. The overgrowth from the surrounding forest was reaching in just enough to cast sun-speckled shadows around the edges but still left an open patch of sky - perfect to illuminate and sparkle off the edge of an ancient relic.

"I thought your landing was highly acceptable, Dojo! Although the descent was … unpleasant." Omi leapt onto the nearest stump and peered around the clearing. "But you can work on that later. What are we looking for?"

Dojo grumbled under his breath and fished out a slim scroll from the recesses behind his ear.

"Unappreciative teenagers … okay, we're looking foooorrrr … according to this, it's a silver arrowhead, about two inches long, one and a half wide. Should be in pretty good condition."

"We're looking for an arrowhead? That's gonna take forever!"

"Then we must waste no time! Let us each take a quarter of the field!"

"Hey, Omi. I'm the leader, here, remember?"

"Ah, yes … " A touch sullenly, Omi turned to face Raimundo and folded his arms across his chest. "Then what do you want to do, Raimundo?"

Raimundo eyed Omi skeptically, then shrugged.

"Actually, your idea's pretty solid. Let's go with that."

They started to search the clearing, prodding at every possible rabbit hole and under every rock. The clouds passed over the sun; in the distance, they heard the low rumble of civilization.

Dojo, meanwhile, preened on a rock.

"Dojo, are you sure of what we're looking for?" Omi asked after an unsuccessful hour of searching.

"Absolutely! I got Master Fung's word for it! He wrote these instructions himself." Dojo opened the scroll again almost lovingly. "He wouldn't tell us something was here if it wasn't. Unless it moved and he didn't know it."

"Dojo … "

"Oh, come on, have we ever been in the wrong place before?"

"Maybe not," interjected Raimundo, "but usually we pick the wrong time. I'm half expecting Katnappe to show up, or worse - "

"Attention has-beens!"

The voice cut across the clearing accompanied by a loud buzzing. Everyone turned to see a figure hovering in midair, his posture radiating arrogant pride and his grin well-rehearsed every morning in front of the mirror.

" … Jack Spicer," finished Raimundo with a heavy sigh.

"That's right! Say it with fear, Xiaolin losers, because I'm here to show you the meaning of losing once and for all!"

"I think you've demonstrated that way too many times already, Spicer," Kimiko said with a smirk.

"Hey, I mean that you're going to lose! Don't try and be witty!"

"You know, buddy, you'd be a lot more intimidatin' if you hadn't buttoned your underpants into your jacket," Clay said, tipping his hat up.

"What? Where?"

As Jack frantically scrabbled at his trench coat's buttons, Raimundo whipped out his arms and hurled a blast of air at him, sending him freewheeling up and over the trees with a scream. It wasn't enough to send him crashing into the forest, but it did give them a moment to get ready for a fight.

"Really funny, cowboy! Jack-bots! Attack!"

The robots rose out of the trees, engines whirring and chasses gleaming in the overcast light. The monks flung themselves into the fray with their Wudai Weapons in hand.

The fight itself didn't take very long; for all his seemingly bottomless funds and constant access to advanced technology, Jack hadn't improved the basics of his Jackbots in a very long time. The upgraded AI still couldn't match up to human ingenuity and the excessive weapons upgrades wound up being too slow to hit a moving target. The one advantage they had was in sheer numbers: no matter how many the monks took down, it seemed like another five showed up to take their place.

In the midst of the chaos, Jack raced down to the clearing and started crawling on his hands and knees through the grass.

Raimundo leapt from robot to robot, letting the ones chasing him do the actual destruction for him. He twisted a wind current and surfed behind a line of distracted Jackbots while another three tried to shoot him out of the sky. The explosions pushed him faster and further and rained metal and oil down on the clearing below, and he whooped triumphantly - recovering just in time to avoid a blast of fire from his left.

"Oi, Kimiko, watch it!"

"Sorry! Didn't see you coming!" Another pillar of flame shot up and knocked a handful of robots into a smoldering pile of wreckage. Across the way, Clay hurled Jackbots into the sky with a mighty stomp, and Omi short-circuited them with a blast of water from his ever-present Orb of Tornami. The destruction went on for a few minutes more before, finally, the buzzing of the robots stopped, replaced by sparks and sizzling as the Jackbots twitched even after their dismemberment.

Jack suddenly yowled in victory.

"A-ha! I found it! I found the - wait, this is a piece of a Jackbot."

The four monks closed in on him, and he glanced up as shadows fell across him.

" … hey, why aren't you fighting? I had like a hundred Jackbots hidden in … the … "

He screamed as he went flying straight up, only to come back down with his coat caught on a branch.

"Another win for the good guys," said Kimiko, dusting off her hands.

"But now we're lookin' for a needle in a haystack. If it's a silver arrowhead, and all his robots are silver, then this just got harder'n a desert after a drought."

Raimundo looked around at the scattered debris and groaned.

"Oh, man, he's right. This is going to take years!"

"Or not!"

Omi suddenly surfaced from the middle of the clearing, something silver in his hand. Unlike the polished metal of the Jackbots, it didn't so much reflect the sun as absorb it, glowing dully in Omi's hands.

"Hey, way to go! Where was it?"

"It was buried! One of the fallen Jackbots ripped up the ground and revealed it." Omi examined the arrowhead carefully. "It looks very old, and very sharp."

"No kidding." Dojo wrapped himself around Omi's neck and poked the tip of the arrowhead. "It's - ow! - it's a weapon, kiddo, they're supposed to be sharp."

"This is so unfair!" cried Jack from where he was dangling. "Hannibal said this would be easy!"

Five heads snapped up to look at him, gazes suddenly sharp.

"Hannibal Bean? He knew about this? Why did he send you? Tell us, now!"

"Give me a reason why I should, Cueball!"

Omi handed the arrowhead to Raimundo and bounded up into the tree, leaning heavily on the branch suspending Jack. It creaked threateningly, ready to snap at any given moment.

"Now, Spicer, tell us why you're here!"

"Okay! Okay! Just step back off the branch!" The terrified squeak in Jack's voice died down as Omi grabbed a higher branch and hung from it. "Hannibal told me to get over here and look for an arrowhead. He didn't say why and he didn't give me any time to get ready. Speaking of that, do you guys have, like, a granola bar or something? I'm starving."

"What would Hannibal want with an arrowhead?" asked Kimiko as Omi dropped back down the tree and rejoined them.

"Uh … hey, did you hear me?"

"I don't know. But if Hannibal's involved, it can't be good." Raimundo shifted the arrowhead from hand to hand. "He must be planning something."

"Hello? Guys? Starving!"

"Master Fung'll want to know about this. D'you think he knew when he sent us?"

"Maybe, but don't you think he would have told us?"

"Master Fung's not always the clearest when it comes to instructions." Clay, forever gloved, took the arrowhead from Raimundo and stored it safely in a pouch on his belt.

"And I'm still hanging from a tree, you know!"

"I'm sure if it was important, he would have told us. Me, anyway," said Dojo, but he sounded troubled. "We should get back ASAP."

"Oh, come on! This is cruel and unusual!"

Dojo grew to his larger size, and the monks climbed on. They vanished into the sky a few moments later.

"Jerks," grumbled Jack, and then screamed as the tree branch finally snapped and dropped him twenty feet to the ground.

.-.-

"Well done, young monks," said Master Fung as he carried the arrowhead to a small drawer in one of the temple's musty back rooms. "It isn't extremely critical, but it's good to know that Fengmeng's Arrowhead is away from evil's grasp."

Nobody said anything until Kimiko elbowed Raimundo in the ribs.

"Oh, uh, hey, Master Fung, speaking of evil … "

"Yes?"

"Why'd you send us out to get that? Like, was there a reason, or were we just collecting it?"

Master Fung gently closed the drawer and turned to look at the four monks, his hands in his sleeves.

"I sent you because word reached me that Hannibal Roy Bean was searching for it."

They glanced at each other.

"We ran into Jack while we were out there," Raimundo continued. "Not Hannibal. But he said Hannibal sent him without saying why."

"Hmmm."

The elder monk looked at the far wall, apparently deep in thought. Then he gestured for the monks to follow him as he made his way out of the back room.

"I don't know what purpose Hannibal would have in sending Jack to fetch this relic," he said slowly, "but it isn't very suspicious that he wouldn't tell Jack what his reasons are. However, it does make me wonder if this whole ordeal was nothing more than a distraction for a greater, more evil scheme."

"You think we were tricked?" asked Omi.

"There is always the possibility. Evil, after all, is often inscrutable."

Master Fung passed by storage room after storage room, heading for the main hall as he spoke.

"I was informed of Hannibal's search by a messenger from a sister temple, but now that you've brought me this information, I believe that courier may have been tricked as well … or perhaps he was Hannibal in disguise." He pulled a scroll out of his pocket and looked it over, squinting closely at the signature. "I can't be sure. I'll go see what I can find out, and will tell you as soon as I learn anything more."

They watched him depart, Dojo hastily slithering after him.

"Well," said Raimundo, hands behind his head, "guess that's us off the hook for today. Who wants pancakes?"

Within the hour, all four of them had cooked up a substantial breakfast and were sitting around the table eating. They'd set aside a spot for Dojo, but he hadn't arrived, and despite Omi's half-hearted searching, they couldn't find him either.

"He's probably still with Master Fung. No need to worry about it," Clay reassured Omi, who was torn between being unnerved by Dojo's absence at a meal and delighted at the opportunity to have seconds for once.

"You're probably right. Still, it's not like him to skip a full meal."

"Especially not when we made him egg-and-cheese wontons," said Kimiko, delicately picking one off the set-aside plate for herself.

"I'm sure he'll smell the food and show up sooner or later. And if not, he gets cold leftovers." Raimundo tipped the last of the fruit salad onto his plate. "You know, this could really use some papayas."

"They're expensive, Rai. They don't grow around here."

"So why don't we just go get some? I mean, we've got a dragon who can fly us halfway around the world in less than an hour to go fight No-Brains Spicer over a 1,500 year old trinket, but we can't stop off in Rio for half an hour to grab a fruit basket?" He held up his hands in defeat. "Totally stupid."

"It would not be proper to ask Dojo to go on errands like that," said Omi primly, balancing carefully on the stack of books needed for him to be able to see over the table. "Even if you think it would be worthwhile, going to buy fruit is an excess."

"I don't see how he could turn down food."

The rest of the day was quiet and almost unusually uneventful. Aside from training and taking their usual procrastination breaks, they finished their chores and lounged around outside, staring up at the slowly-darkening sky as the sun set and the clouds rolled in. It looked almost like a thunderstorm was coming in, but according to Kimiko, the weather forecast wasn't predicting any rain.

They went to bed that evening without much on their minds, and during the night, none of them had any dreams.

Mostly because they didn't need to.

.-.-

At midnight, lightning cracked across the sky, thunder rumbled into the depths of the earth, and a wave of dark energy pierced the spiritual realms.

In the Xiaolin temple, Master Fung gave a start and splattered ink across the text he was writing, staring out the window in sudden surprise.

In the high mountaintop temple, Master Monk Guan snapped awake in an instant, his eyes fixed on the skylight above.

Lingering by a pool in the lair she'd acquired from an ancient ruin, Wuya nearly fell into the water out of sheer startled shock.

And in his far western lair, Chase Young was drawn from peaceful meditation to full realization in a split second, his eyes opening and his pupils thinning to nearly-invisible slits in furious dread.

.-.-

The monks were roughly awoken early the next morning by the sound of Dojo coming in for a rough landing outside the temple.

"Ugh … what time is it?" asked Clay, rubbing his eyes with a hand.

"Early," said a muffled Raimundo.

"Too early," Kimiko added. "My phone says six thirty."

"Why can't we ever sleep in anymore? Is it because I'm a Shoku Warrior? I renege my position if that's the case."

"Well, nobody's here to wake us up, so it probably doesn't involve us."

"If there's a lot going on, it's going to involve us."

Omi, who had less problems with early waking, got dressed and made his way out of the dormitory to see what was going on. The early-rising monks were doing their morning rituals as usual, but there was a tension in the air that reminded him of so many past events: of Wuya's return to her human body, of Mala-Mala Jong's recreation, of the moment he'd snatched the Ying Yo-Yo from Chase's hand all those months ago.

He searched for Master Fung and found him in the temple's meditation room. Quietly he joined him, sitting down on the opposite side of the mat, and waited. After a minute or two, Omi cleared his throat, but it seemed that Master Fung already knew he was there.

"You're up early, Omi."

"We heard something going on outside. Has something happened, Master?"

Master Fung looked up at Omi and was silent for a few long seconds before shaking his head with a sigh.

"I'm afraid so, young monk. But I cannot tell you just yet what happened. Go back to bed, and I will come get all of you when it's time."

Unnerved, Omi stood and bowed, then made his way back to the dormitory where the sound of snoring told him that Raimundo had gone back to sleep already. Kimiko and Clay were still awake, though, and leaned out of their rooms to look at him.

"Well? Did you hear anything?" Kimiko asked.

"Master Fung said something happened," he said, "and the air feels … tense. I believe we may be in for something very unpleasant later today."

"Rai had it right," said Clay, sitting back on his mat. "If it's somethin' big, it's probably end of the world stuff. We'll definitely be involved."

"Great," Kimiko grumbled, vanishing back under her covers. "Might as well get in a little sleep before then."

Omi found he couldn't go back to sleep, so he meditated instead. But even that was difficult, as the sound of hurried footsteps and whispers just low enough to be inaudible plagued him no matter how much he tried to clear his mind. Eventually he gave up altogether and went with Clay to get breakfast - cold rice out of the refrigerator and some leftover wontons Dojo had somehow missed.

Kimiko joined them an hour later; Raimundo, an hour after that. They were all uneasy and everyone was ignoring them, which, while not entirely unusual, was still off-putting. Dojo took off and landed in the courtyard several times, sometimes with a person on his back, sometimes not. At one point Raimundo glanced out the window and gave a start.

"Hey - isn't that Master Monk Guan?"

They all looked out and saw the telltale flash of orange robes that Guan always wore disappearing into the temple.

"If Master Monk Guan is here, then the situation must be most serious."

"This ain't good." Clay shuffled the cards he'd brought for a third time. "I feel like a cattle in a slaughterhouse pen right about now."

"Oh, come on, guys," Raimundo suddenly said, leaning back in his chair. "It's probably just another super-serious end-of-the-world scenario. We've been through these before at least five times. Everyone gets all worked up and then we go in and kick butt! It's not gonna be a problem, trust me."

"I dunno, Rai. This could be the one time it is a problem." Kimiko leaned on an arm and eyed him skeptically. "Why else would Master Monk Guan be here?"

"Because everyone else thinks it's serious. Look, guys, we've saved the world before and we'll do it again. This is nothing new."

The words had barely left him when a monk arrived at the kitchen door and told them that Master Fung needed to speak with all of them, and urgently. With a shared look of concern between them (even Raimundo's bravado faltered for the moment), they warily made their way to the main hall, where Master Fung and Master Monk Guan were waiting for them.

The normal greetings seemed to fade in importance as they approached; normally, they would have been excited to see their former teacher back at the temple. But the expressions on the two men's faces gave them pause, and they stopped a few feet away.

"Master Fung, Master Monk Guan," said Omi tentatively. "You wished to speak with us?"

"Yes, young monks," began Master Fung. "I'm afraid I have very grave news concerning the state of the world - and the universe itself.

"My concerns about yesterday's possible deception were confirmed. Hannibal Roy Bean had no need for Fengmeng's Arrowhead - he sent word to us and sent Jack in an effort to distract us from his true goal. Because we were intent on stopping him from gaining one relic, he was able to access a different one … a much more powerful one."

"Last night, you may have felt a troubled in your dreams, or woken to a peal of thunder," Master Monk Guan continued. "That was Hannibal reaching an ancient holy relic known as the Pan Gu Shards - rumored to be the shards of the egg the creator Pan Gu first slept in and later used to create the Heavens and the Earth. Whether or not they are the real thing, they are nonetheless a very powerful artifact, and in the wrong hands, they could be used to end the world - or worse."

"But … how did he get to them? Weren't they protected?" asked Kimiko, slightly shocked.

"They were. They were buried deep in the earth, beyond the reach of mortal hands, but Hannibal is a vicious and clever being. How exactly he got to them, we don't know, but he cannot have access to them for very long, or he may use them for unspeakably nefarious deeds." Master Fung sighed heavily.

"So … you want us to go find him and get them back? Can do," said Raimundo, though his confidence was somewhat tempered.

"No, Raimundo. None of you are prepared to try and face him when he has access to this power - not even a Shoku Warrior has the skill to do so." Guan glanced away. "Shamefully, even I cannot consider attacking him directly."

The monks fell into a stunned silence.

"We believe," continued Master Fung, straightening his shoulders, "that he intends to awaken an entity of pure and baseless evil with the Shards. Our only advantage in this matter is that this awakening will take him a significant amount of time and energy, which allows us a sliver of hope in preparing to defeat him. As such, during this time, the four of you - who are our greatest hope - will be sent away to train again. Under this teacher, you will improve your fighting skills, learn new techniques, master your elemental control, and learn to confront the darkness that exists in your hearts."

"The darkness? But Master Fung - " began Omi.

"There is darkness in the heart of every man, woman, and child," Master Fung gently interrupted. "It is not always a mark of evil."

Raimundo shifted uncomfortably.

"But … this teacher - Master Monk Guan, will you be teaching us?" Omi asked, turning to look at Guan expectantly.

"No, Omi, I'm afraid not."

"Then who is it?"

Guan looked over the monks silently for a moment, as if judging their expectations, before finally speaking.

"Chase Young," he said.