Chapter Text
As smoke rose from the volcano containing Chase Young’s old lair, Wuya crept up to the plateau of its front entrance. She briefly rested a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at the vicious face adorning the lair’s front side, its eyes still glowing yellow from the fires burning within.
She pursed her lips and muttered, “He always had an eye for exterior decorating.” With a sneer and a toss of her red hair, she added, “What a shame to lose him.”
A caw echoed overhead, and she tilted her head up at the crow watching her with focused, unblinking eyes. Her smile grew wider, and she said, “Oh, don’t mind me. I’m sure your dearly defeated master won’t mind if I take a look around. Now that the mighty has fallen, he can step aside for us true Heylin threats, so if you don’t mind, I’ll just be… passing through…” With that, she proceeded to stroll to the thick wooden door to phase right through it.
Instead, she smacked right into the wood.
The crow cackled. Wuya managed not to stumble, but she still took a step back, rubbing her bruising nose with a scowl and muttering, “You’d think after a few years of being solid… Bah !” With a dark glare at the door, she tossed her hair back again, braced her legs, and pushed her sleeves up past her elbows. However, before she could grab at the door’s base, fully prepared to hoist it out of her way, the crow dove down, cawed again, and tapped once on the door with its beak.
With the sound of grinding stone, the door lifted open. Wuya huffed and relaxed her posture, resting both hands on her hips before she said, “My my, little crow, I didn’t know you still had some manners in there.” She brushed her hair off her right shoulder, leaving an open space for the crow to land, and then she strolled inside.
She expected to find the atrium of the lair exactly as she had left it last: abandoned and filled with overgrown vines and algae-coated water fountains. Instead, it was as pristine as its heyday. She raised an eyebrow as she passed a panther casually dusting a corner with its tail and a tiger napping on the top of a nearby stairway. Though Wuya’s last encounter with Chase’s jungle cats had gone poorly, and she had certainly not expected to find them back here, she kept her head high and walked up the stairs straight to the main throne room.
All evidence of her last (embarrassing) battle in here had been removed. The sky-colored ceiling and painted windows were all repaired, and the throne sat back upright, but it was unoccupied. Wuya marched right up to the lion statue next to the throne and smacked its head right off its shoulders. As the head hit the floor with a loud thud, she peered into the statue’s hollow center. It was empty.
“The Shen Gong Wu are gone, Wuya.”
The crow startled, but Wuya did not. Straightening her back, she turned a wide smile to the person standing behind her, unarmed but flanked by two of his tigers. Though his long black hair had not changed, Chase now wore green robes in place of his bronze armor, and he watched her with brown, mortal eyes, no longer slitted.
What a downgrade.
“Why, Chase Young!” she said, clapping her hands together in mock excitement. “Or is it Xiaolin Chase now?”
For a brief moment, he seemed to actually ponder the question, but then he answered, “Monk Chase will do.”
“Not even a Master Monk?” She let out a sarcastic gasp. “You must be so embarrassed.”
He barely raised an eyebrow in response. “What brings you here, Wuya?”
“Well.” She sashayed to the throne and proceeded to drape herself across it, causing the crow to topple off her shoulder with an angry squawk. “Rumor has it that some prime real estate has opened up in the Land of Nowhere.” She tapped a slender finger to her chin and smirked at the ex-Heylin warlord. “After all, this lair’s owner recently had all his evil chi forcibly removed from him— a fate worse than death, I would say. So tragic. Now that he has no use for an evil lair, I presume it must now belong to its other primary tenant: me.”
The crow flapped in a circle over their heads, cawing irately before it dove through the doorway and out of the room. Chase tipped his chin upward just a fraction, and the two tigers bared their teeth. “A logical conclusion,” he said, “but I am afraid you are incorrect. My lair still belongs to me. I may no longer be Heylin, but I am far from dead.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Wuya, smile growing wider. “Now that you’re mortal, you’re much closer to death than you were before.”
His mouth curved into a smirk of his own. “I lost my everlasting youth when the Xiaolin Warriors defeated the Heylin Demon, the same demon who tore your soul from your body and left you for dead in this very room.” He gave a small shake of his head. “You can pity me all you like, but to owe your worst enemies a ‘thank you’ for saving your life? That’s a far worse fate in my eyes.”
Wuya’s smile dropped, and her bruised nose wrinkled. “I owe nothing to those children.” She shot upright on the throne and spent a moment trying to find a new comfortable position, but the dang seat was clearly too low to the ground for her. Giving up, she grabbed at the armrests and snapped, “So what is your plan then, Monk Chase? Live the rest of your tiny mortal life in your old evil lair? I assumed you would be moving into the Xiaolin Temple like the goody-goody you’ve become.”
“Not at all.” Chase turned his gaze up to the mystic skylight, currently glowing orange and pink from the rising dawn. “There is a lot of damage I have done to the world that needs repairing.”
He opened a palm and tilted it downward, inviting the nearby tiger to push its head up into his hand. “For one thing, when my evil chi was destroyed, my Heylin magic was destroyed with it, which means I can no longer break the curses that bind my jungle cats to my servitude.” He scratched the tiger’s head. “I plan to rectify that.”
Wuya pressed a hand to her chest in mock excitement. “You want to free your little pets? Oh, isn’t that sweet?” She sneered and leaned against an armrest. “You could always abandon them at the nearest farm and be done with it, you know.”
He shook his head. “No matter how far away I send them, my warriors are still bound to me.”
“And most binding contracts end at death.” Wuya stood from the throne. “Now that you’re mortal, the problem should solve itself in time.” With a grin, she flexed her fingers and added, “If you’re in a hurry, I could rush things along.”
The tigers both started growling, but at some silent cue that Wuya must have missed, they both glanced at Chase and went quiet. Meanwhile, Chase let out a quiet scoff and said, “You can certainly try.” He turned his gaze away from the skylight to lock eyes with her, not quite as tall as she was. “Even if you succeeded, killing me would not return your powers to you.”
Wuya’s eyebrows lifted. “Whatever makes you think I’m here for my powers?”
“I presume that’s the reason you stole what was left of my Lao Mang Long soup.”
“Your—” She had to genuinely pause at that. “Your… soup?”
“All my remaining reserves are gone.” He shifted his gaze to the vague direction of his kitchen and pantries downstairs. “Granted, I did not have much left, but I kept very close tabs of my supplies. Since I was here last, all my cans and remaining ingredients have been taken, along with the recipe book.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “But of course, since you’re the one who took it all, you already know this.”
Though Wuya would normally have loved nothing more than to take credit for such an evil accomplishment, Chase’s words were so nonsensical that she tossed her hands up and said, “I don’t have your Lao Mang Long soup! What could I possibly want with it? Do you know how hard I worked to gain back my glorious physique? Do you really think I would ruin it to turn into a disgusting beast in exchange for immortality, something I already have ?”
“Of course not. You were never going to drink it; I’ve known that for years, from the moment I first allowed you to cross my home’s threshold.” Chase crossed his arms. “No, Wuya, I think you’re trying to blackmail me with it. Unfortunately for you, that tactic will not work. Now that Hannibal Bean is destroyed, the soup has lost its power, which makes it worthless.”
She huffed. “I already knew that.” She did not, in fact, already know that.
Chase folded his hands in front of him, allowing them to disappear into the sleeves of his green robes. “You have no bargaining chip, Wuya. Not only is the soup useless now, but your powers were forever lost when my evil chi was destroyed in the Cosmic Clash.” He smiled grimly. “Neither of us have anything of value to trade to the other.”
At the thought of her Heylin magic being truly gone forever, Wuya gritted her teeth to mask the growing rage. Still, could she truly believe the word of the forcibly reformed Monk Chase, someone who hadn’t been trustworthy even while whole?
Either way, she wasn’t about to wear her heart on her sleeve; instead, she pouted her lips and gave a bored shrug. “How interesting. Well, in that case, I suppose I shall depart before I wear out my welcome. After all, it seems you have a far bigger problem to solve than I do.”
She made her way to the open doorway, successfully repressing the urge to give the nearest tiger a swift kick as she passed it. Monk Chase watched her go, and he said, “Do I?”
“Indeed.” She paused at the doorway and flashed another smirk at him. “I did not steal anything from this wretched place, so if I did not take your Lao Mang Long soup, then who did?” With that, she turned away and headed back down the stairs, leaving ex-Heylin Chase with his unsolved puzzle.