The cage surrounding Raimundo had remoulded itself into a solid straitjacket that held him to the ground. Wuya seemed to have been the one to take the Trember Trident from Jack, as she twirled it in her fingers before him.

"What are you going to do?" he asked. She had thrown three bolts of green lightning in his general direction, and he had yelled pre-emptively at each. Now, however, she sat back as if waiting for something.

"What are you going to do?" he asked a little louder.

"Oh, do be quiet. Raimundo, as long as you tell your friends later that I've been using this on you," she said holding up the Shen Gong Wu, "then I won't need to actually bother."

"Deal!" he said, relieved. "But... seriously, why?"

"My dear, dear Raimundo - this is all part of my plan!" she exclaimed, and began to pace. "You see, I want to make it up to you for treating you so badly at the beginning of our partnership."

If he had been able to move, Raimundo would have shifted uncomfortably. That 'bad treatment' had resulted in his being sent to the future, where he had defeated Wuya using powers that he had been unable to recreate since. It had also resulted in his current state - being trapped in the wooden puzzle box had turned him into a ghost and given him the ability to sense the whereabouts of newly activated Shen Gong Wu. Both were hidden, however, by his own lying tongue and a curious side affect that had come to the Serpents Tail of the future.

As Wuya's hand snaked under his chin to push his head up from the neck, he was thrown out of reminiscing. "And like it or not," she said, "your friends trusting you is important for that plan."

"That's good," he said with a smile. "I've only just been able to move back in!" By betraying another friend, he remembered sombrely.

She wagged a finger at him as she stood up. "But that doesn't mean that I shall be telling you the plan!"

"Oh yeah, sure. Wouldn't expect you to..." Nobody tells me anything anymore, anyway.

"And I'm just helping you because you helped me."

A smile began to mount on Raimundo's lips. "Right," he said.

Wuya's mouth curved upward at the corners. "I'm glad that we understand each other," she said.

Raimundo nodded, and then another thing occurred to him. "So was that thing in the ruin just a big act, then?"

"Of course!" She leant her head on its side, listening. "If I had been trying to kill you, you wouldn't have survived." She then held the Trember Trident above his head, and whispered. "It seems that our chat time has come to an end - this may sting just a little bit."

There was a crash at the cave entrance, and the trident began its descent. Raimundo cried out against the pain of the electrical burst that spread from his dorsal muscles, falling limp when it was gone.

"Hold it right there, Wuya!" Omi shouted, the other monks and Katnappé standing behind him.

Wuya gasped in mock surprise. "Katnappé! Have you betrayed me?"

"Yes!" she shot out, standing strongly (though next to Clay in case there was the need for a shield).

Kimiko looked over at the blonde. "Did you..." she started. There wasn't any need to finish the question - it was obvious to Kimiko from the way that the other girl avoided her gaze that yes, this was her fault.

"Guys! You came!" Raimundo had recovered from the fuzziness of the head induced by the Trember Trident. Katnappé looked at her shoes, trying to make herself seem as small as possible.

"You let Raimundo go!" yelled Clay, and the Dragon Apprentices assembled into some kind of formation. Another new one, Raimundo thought drowsily. Another new one without me.

Katnappé found herself being shuffled behind them, out of the way. She held the Eye of Dashi, the Shen Gong Wu that she had filched from Raimundo's pocket, to her chest and watched the battle. Wuya used mostly kicks and punches with the occasional flash of green light to fight, whereas the three Apprentices tried to team up and draw her away from the captive Wind Dragon, who had struggled up onto his knees.

Then she had an idea. "Tiger Claws," she called, sticking her free hand through the rift and rummaging impatiently, eventually pulling out the Fist of Tebigong. "Fist of Tebigong!" she cried, running over to Raimundo as she did so. The boy's eyes widened at the sight, but he realised what going on when the straitjacket cracked and disintegrated.

He wobbled up, holding her arm to steady himself. "Thanks, Ash," he said as he recovered, and then flexed his arm muscles to wake them up. She looked at him, confused as to whether he was being sarcastic or not, but he was already running to the other side of the cave where they used to keep their Shen Gong Wu. He picked the Sword of the Storm and cried its name, summoning a huge gust of wind to drive the already-moving Wuya out of the cave.

The warriors crowded around him with their generic cheers and cries of 'What happened?' as he humoured them. Ashley found her feet, watching them for a moment. Her eyes filled with tears and she bolted past them to the back wall, where she dodged behind a fold in the rock and disappeared.

Raimundo turned around. "Ashley!" he shouted, but didn't wait for an answer before stumbling over to where she had vanished. He examined the wall feverishly, but when he found the hidden entrance there was a hand on his arm, holding him back.

"Why are you going after her?" Kimiko demanded. "She betrayed you!"

"She's still my friend!" he cried, trying to shake her off. She held fast for a moment more, glaring at him, but her fingers loosened when she realised that those same words were missing from her own script. He was gone in an instant, and she slumped guiltily against the wall.

&o&o&

It was dark in the tunnel, but Ashley's footsteps were loud in front of him. He struck out in the darkness for any sort of marker - a wall, a line, anything. He was close to some sort of vertical surface, so he traced his fingers along it as he walked, not daring to go too fast and listening hard for the footsteps that led the way. It occurred to him that this was quite possibly the stupidest thing that he'd ever done - she didn't want him following her, the others wouldn't know which direction he'd gone in... Could have been suicide.

Too late too think about that now, he thought resolutely and quickened his pace. The tunnel was mostly linear, but there were occasions when the wall fell away and he was forced to stumble forward blindly until he regained it. The footsteps were becoming fainter, too. She knows her way around here, he thought, and then wondered why they hadn't explored the passages together.

Eventually he came to wooden panelling instead of rock, and chinks of light from the other side of it began to appear. He couldn't hear the footsteps at all, now, but they seemed to have arrived. He pressed his eye against one of the chinks to see an empty, though ornate, dining hall. In the middle of the room there was a large table with two glasses - one empty, one half-full - opposite one another.

Moving on past other rooms, he realised that this was some kind of house - most likely Ashley's own. But why would she make us sleep in a stupid cave if her house was right here? he wondered, before realising that he was walking though a collection of girl's coats and skirts - and hit his head against an obstruction ahead. Swearing, he put out his hands to find a strange wall, panelled and engraved with... a door handle?

He shrugged, and pushed against it.

The door came ajar easily and he peeked through before entering. It was dark, but not the dark of the tunnel - soft light permeated the heavy curtains to his right. With a blush, Raimundo recognised that he had found Ashley's bedroom - a fact proved by the hunched over figure in front of him.

As he stood there, not sure whether he was in or out, she spoke. "Why did you come after me?" she asked quietly.

"Because we're friends?" He waited for a response, and then walked over nervously to sit by her side. "Friends don't let other friends go off by themselves. Not twice in the same day, at least."

She flopped backwards and looked up at him. "Well, you have your old friends back now," she said in a disinterested manner.

There was a pause. "Sorry about the mix up after the showdown," he said. "I meant to be cheering for you, but she asked and... Sorry." He bit his lip, examining her face. "And I meant what I said earlier," he said louder, "even if you didn't."

She didn't make any indication that she'd heard him, just stared at the ceiling. "Don't talk so loud," she said eventually, evenly. "My dad'll hear you and you'll have to get out."

"So you want me to stay?" he asked with a grin. She didn't answer, though he thought he saw... Wait, he thought as he peered closer at her face. Is she... blushing?

"Why is your face so close?" she asked, looking at him oddly. He realised that he had got very close indeed while looking at her cheeks, and hastily propped himself back onto his arms to move away. She had other ideas about that, however, and followed him with a catty smile and made their noses touch. It only took a moment for him to give into the temptation and kiss her.

Later, after an overprotective father had opened the door to check on his daughter, and Raimundo had fled through the window (not forgetting to snag the Eye of Dashi as he went), he found that his friends were still waiting for him in the cave, unsure of were they were and reluctant to search in the rain. He accepted his Golden Tiger Claws from Clay, and they returned to the Temple. No-one asked after Katnappé.

&o&o&

AN: Hope you liked... Of the 1744 words of this installment, 800-ish were typed tonight, so I feel proud. If you're after the next arc, and the KatRaiJack goodness that comes with it, keep an eye on my profile on... Let's say Sunday. Yes, I'll put up the 1st chapter of the next arc on Sunday if I can reach the computer.