Another Time: Eleven Misplaced Attempts To Understand The Present

1.

The wind whipping around them made speech difficult without shouting, but they tried anyway.

"You can fly?"

"I am the Heylin Dragon of the Wind!"

"You are on the Heylin Side?!"

"What other side is there? And since it's been just me and Kimiko at the temple, we're advancing really quickly!"

"What about Clay?"

"Who?"

"Clay! The Xiaolin Dragon of the Earth?"

"You mean Wuya? She's our teacher!"

Ice. "But Wuya is evil!"

"You're crazy, time-travel dude! Wuya defeated Dashi and Chase Young fifteen hundred years ago and saved the world! That's how she's famous!"

"Wuya defeated Dashi?" A lower tone. "Something is very wrong here."

"Hold on, dudes! We're nearly there!"

"Ahh!"

2.

Almost as soon as he was on the ground, Raimundo shepherded Omi into a small firelit room and announced (loudly) that he was going to bed. Wuya, when she emerged, wore a costume almost identical to Kimiko's temple uniform.

"Omi!" she called, and dragged him into a hug. He resisted; she pouted. "Now, is that any way to greet your mother? Especially a mother who hasn't seen you in nearly fifteen hundred years?"

Then she chuckled at his expression. "Of course," she said, finally releasing him, "that was our Omi, who was rescued and grew up with his parents. You aren't him."

3.

Omi gaped at what he was told. Even Dojo stopped making smart-alec remarks.

Chase Young had turned to evil after all, and was followed by Master Monk Guan. They were both defeated before the year was out.

Dashi surrendered to Wuya.

Wuya was Good.

Effectively, there was no evil to fight.

Wuya snatched the Sands away before Omi could make the connection between it and the last, quickly distracting him with a question as to who else he should ask ask after.

'Fung' rang a bell, but from where she had no idea. She had never heard of Hannibal Bean, nor Jack Spicer, nor Clay Bailey.

4.

"So, you're a Water Dragon, huh?" The Kimiko of this timeline didn't have a Heylin Tattoo like the Raimundo did.

Omi looked up from his breakfast, wishing that Dojo hadn't abandoned him to find this timeline's Master Fung. "Yes, I am." Something occurred to him. "Is there another Water Dragon here?"

"Sarah's older than we are. She's travelling, which is why you haven't met her."

Omi's eyes widened. "I have been replaced by a GIRL?!" he exclaimed. His voice echoed around the temple.

The Kimiko folded her arms. "You wanna rephrase that? You've got ten seconds. Then we're going to the sparring ring."

"Er..."

"Too late!"

5.

"See that he doesn't get this back," Wuya said, tossing the Shen Gong Wu to Raimundo.

The Wind Dragon looked at it until he figured out what it was. "Why?" he asked momentarily. "It shouldn't work anyway without evil to balance it, right?"

Wuya chuckled. "Dear boy, I know that, and you know that. But he doesn't know that yet, and if he tries to retrieve it it'll serve as a warning of his intentions." A roving bird caught her attention and held it for a long moment. "I've grown rather attached to this timeline; I don't want it undone now."

6.

Omi flew through the air after a powerful kick from Kimiko, and lay on the ground for a while until Raimundo helped him up.

"What have we learned?" she asked, grinning.

"That you are far stronger than the Kimiko in my timeline," he answered with a groan.

She frowned. "Can we not compare me to me? I can't win like that."

Raimundo rolled his eyes. "Because you can never lose, ever."

She grinned. "Exactly!"

Omi's ego was severely bruised, but he quickly fixed on the idea of learning something new. "What was the last move that you used?"

She winked. "A secret Heylin Fire Dragon move."

7.

Raimundo stopped talking in order to listen, grinned, and suddenly started running toward the courtyard. "C'mon Omi, you've got to meet Master Guan!"

"You're such a fanboy freak, Raimundo!" Kimiko called after him, and suddenly seemed to be sulking.

Omi, however, was confused. "But Wuya said that Master Monk Guan was..."

"She lied," Kimiko told him, but held up a hand before he could react. "It used to be that everyone would pretend that the Grand Master of the Heylin Temple was dead, so that outsiders wouldn't know who to assassinate. It's really outdated, but Wuya still does it to tease him."

8.

"I did know Dashi, for a time. We fought together, until..."

"Until?" Omi prompted.

"I believe that you were there - Chase told me afterwards that he saw you during the battle. Wuya breached the temple wall, but all she did was look around. Dashi would not tell us what she had been searching for - what we had been protecting." He smiled a little. "Dashi was a great warrior, but he was not a leader."

Great warrior, but not a leader.

Omi stared at the far wall, then ran outside. He had to fix things.

Then he ran back. "What was she searching for?"

"You."

9.

"... and after your very last visit, I decided to style myself as the good guy in order to win. Everyone knew what happened at the Tiger Temple, and I just... helped things along. A little 'he said, she said' here, a possession-disguised-as-truth-telling spell there..." Wuya flicked a braid over her shoulder, obviously pleased with herself. "Easy."

"You framed him?!"

"Oh, please. It wasn't hard, after the rumours following the Tiger fiasco... Besides, Dashi was strong - he won in your timeline, correct?"

"Of course he did!"

"Of course? If it had been so obvious, he might have actually had allies to defend him..."

10.

"I once asked Dashi this: Do you still think that ridding the world of evil is worth it?

When Clay had left before, they'd just followed him to Texas. Here, he might not even exist. And that was without thinking about Chase...

"You've no way to change it, you know."

Omi looked up at the three puzzleboxes on their shelf. One was open; he took down the others. One contained the framed Grand Master Dashi; the other, Chase Young. Two years ago the choice of which to open would have been clear. Now...

He put the Dashi-box down, and opened the other.

11.

"That idiot boy!"

The source of Wuya's distress was not the rising Evil, but the potential ramifications should the Shen Gong Wu activate. She had to minimise the timeline-damage. A plan formed.

"Raimundo, if he attempts the Sands of Time, you must accompany him to the past. You know the histories - make him think that he has achieved his goal, but don't let him actually change anything. Understand?"

The Wind Dragon nodded, but the Fire Dragon was alarmed. "Why him?"

"I need you here." She didn't, really, but it was one of those things Wuya often said. It got her her way faster.

&o&o&