---- Chase's Palace that afternoon ----

Chase Young, Wuya, Jack and Kaiser had gotten back to the palace as they were finally the winners of a showdown. Chase started to head to his meditating room as he said while not turning around.

"If anyone needs me I'll be meditating. Do not bother me for anything stupid." With that he was in the other room. Then Wuyawent off to do who knows what with her spare time as she went to put the wu in a safe place just leaving Jack and Kaiser. Jack looked at Kaiser and smiled.

"W-wanna help me with my Jack-bots?" He asked, blushing slightly. Kaiser looked at him as he asked her, it's not like she was going to do anything since normally Snowflake and the other cats just hound her for attention.

"Sure, I don't see why not. I got nothing better to do." Casually saying as she waited for him to lead the way. Jack smiled and showed her to his lab happily showing her around. Kaiser let out a chuckle at how adorable Jack was acting when showing her around. "Wait hold up, hold the phone! I didn't just use the word adorable did I? What's gotten into me?" Kaiser thought trying to shake it off mentally.

"You got a lot of cool stuff I will admit." Kaiser said as she looked closely at a few.

"Thanks, I made all of these myself." He grinned happily and showed her some of his favorite creations, feeling something in his chest for a moment. Kaiser looked as she saw one by itself in a corner as she started to walk over to it.

"What about this one Jack?" Kaiser examined it closely. Jack looked at it.

"Huh,oh uh, that's an old prototype that never got finished. I never had the right stuff to fix it up." Jacksighed with a chuckle. Kaiser then asked.

"What was it suppose to do? You got any tools and a scrap pile?" She turned and looked over her shoulder to him.

"It was supposed to be like a personal entertainment center so I wouldn't have to put stuff up and worry about that stuff." Jack smiled kindly, liking that she was so interested in his work. Kaiser saw the tools near by and grabbed the small box and opening it then opening the hatch of the robot to see a bunch of wires.

"That's a lot of wires." Kaiser commented before moving herponytail to her back so it didn't get in her way or caught in anything while she worked. She pulled out a few wires and tossed them behind her that were unneeded parts for the robot to work. "Who puts a half eaten pudding cup in their robot?"Kaiser thought as she flung it behind as she mentally chuckled then went back work. Jack blinked and knelt down, helping her with a smile. He then felt his heart thump slightly as he saw her face. She looked happy, or at least he thought so. Kaiser felt at ease doing this sort of stuff, she even fixed cars and motorbikes, well her motorcycle she would mostly work on since before all of this she had so much free time. A light smile appeared on Kaiser's face not to her full attention as she started to lightly hum "My Chemical Romance's" song "I'm Not Okay" while working kinda forgetting Jack was with her helping. Jack chuckled.

"You look happy." He said, fixing a few wires. Kaiser snapped out of her focused train of thought as she looked at him confused.

"What do you mean?" Jack smiled and shrugged.

"I mean what I say. You look happy. Well, happier than usual." He smiled then stuck his head in the torso of the robot to see if there were any wires that neededto be replace, but his head got stick. "AAH!! I'M STUCK!!" He squeaked. Kaiser's heart felt a bit lighter than normally, she guessed she was a bit happy even though it's a feeling she hasn't felt in years. Kaiser looked to the freaking out Jack shaking her head.

"You don't just go sticking your head into robots' heads Jack." She said seeing only his hair was a bit of a mess, but not his face Jack gulped.

"Ok... H-help me... Please..." He said a little sad. "I-it's dark in here." Kaiser helped Jack get his head out safely without getting him hurt.

"There, you're out, now don't do it again." She said lecturing him as she stopped and saw his face covered in oil and held her breath .

"Kay." Jack replied, trying to rub the oil off but only making it worse. While Kaiser watch him try to clean his face making it worse she started to laugh. Jack stared at her and blinked, eventually laughing with her happily.

"Your laugh is super... uh.. How do I say it?" Jack started, thinking of how to word this. Kaiser stopped her laughing thinking Jack was going to say it was something bad and then went back to work like before.

"Oh, it's cute!" He smiled and helped her. "Took me a moment to figure out the correct word. Your laugh is really cute. I like it." He smiled, giving her a kind look. "Ya know, you should laugh like that more often." Kaiser froze at the word cute and stopped working since Jack caught her completely off guard.

"Me cute? Barely, that's the very last thing anyone else would say. Normally I'm called: cold blooded, heartless, blunt, bruteful, disrespectful, and of coursemercilus." She said using her fingers to list off each one. Jack smiled.

"But I think you're cute so there you go, add cute to your list." He smiled and put his arm in the robot, taking out another pudding cup. "haha, wh-who put that in there?" He smiled nervously and tossed behind him. Kaiser's chest ached, but why? Jack made her feel so confused right now as she put her face near the robot to work on again wanting to finished it already.

"I used to do this a lot on my own time." Kaiser said trying to figure out what was going on with herself as she was trying to deal with these long lost emotions. Jack smiled.

"That's how I started out." He stated. Just doing the small stuff during my off time and now here I am! Jack Spicer! Evil boy genius!" Kaiser chuckled a bit shaking her head a bit deciding to tease Jack.

"Evil boy genius? More like evil boydufus." Flashing him her famous smirk. Jack blinked and shrugged, rubbing the back of his head, chuckling.

"Yeeeaah, I get that a looooot..." He stated, getting oil in his hair. Kaiser looked at him frowning a bit feeling sorry she said that.

"Umm...For what it's worth Jack...I think you're alright, you're pretty cool from what I first thought about you." Kaiser finished speaking kinda embarrassed as she finally finished it as her hands had some oil and her cheek had some as well. Jack smiled and handed her a cloth.

"Thanks Kaiser, you're pretty cool yourself." He smiled almost like a child. Why was he feeling so weird around her?

----- Xiaolin Temple that evening -----

Kari walked around the temple grounds, back to her normal self and staying away from Raimundo like her first few days. She didn't want to see him because she needed to think things over. She very rarely got so close to people, which is why she was so mean at first. She only ever called Kaiser her friend while everyone else was just an acquaintance, even though she called them friends to keep them happy. She never wanted to get close to anyone like she had gotten close to Kaiser because of how she was treated when she was younger. She almost got taken to a lab and tested on and because of her parents are dead and she may never see her older brother again.

"... Why do I feel so weird..." Kari mumbled to herself while on the roof of the temple, staring at the sky. "... Why am I getting close to them? Do they remind me of Kaiser? ... Kaiser... heh, I wonder how things are at Chase's place. She looks fine, I hope that's true..." Kari closed her eyes with a sigh and hummed to herself as Dojo and Raimundo walked the grounds, looking for her. Raimundo and Dojo have been wondering around so they could talk to Kari so Raimundo could clear things up with Kari so they could be friends.

"Oh there she is." Raimundo said and pointed to her, getting his hopes up for being able to talk to Kari so he could tell her that he was really worried and cared about her well being and that he didn't hate her at all. Raimundo then started to walk over to Kari. Dojo decided to hang back and watch and if Raimundo needed help he'd go in as back up. Kari growled lightly and sat up, with narrowed eyes, seeing Raimundo walking towards the roof she was on. She gulped and stayed put. She just watched him, seeing if he was coming up or just going in side. She frowned and gulped at the thoughts circling her head. "Is he gonna just come out and prove me right? O-or wh-what?" She gulped remembering how people bullied her in the past and the nights she had spent getting glass out of her hair from beer bottles and bandaging herself up and eventually crying herself to sleep, wanting her mother and father back as well as her older brother.

Raimundo stopped walking as he got to the roof Kari was on. "Kari we need to talk, because we're both been misunderstanding one another and I don't want you thinking that I hate you!" Raimundo shouted up to her waiting for her to come down so they could talk things out. Kari looked at him, moving back slightly.

"... Don't lie..." Kari frowned. "Ev-everyone hates me! Everyone think's I'm a freak or a monster except the only other person with this DUMB CURSE!" Kari shivered and stood up. "I NEVER ASKED TO BE A STUPID DRAGON!! I NEVER ASKED TO BE A FREAK!!" Kari growled and then turned so her back faced Raimundo. Raimundowas stunned, did she really think of him that badly. Raimundo felt a pain more worse than Kaiser's illusions or even when she punched him in the nose, he felt his heart as if it was shattering into glass and just walked away now upset. He was going to stop bothering Kari, she really hated him is all that was running through his head as he went to who knows where.

Dojo watched Raimundo leave in pain. Kari sniffled and hugged her knees, feeling just as bad knowing that he left. "I-I k-knew it..." She thought. Dojo puffed out his chest and slithering over near the roof Kari was as he grew large so he can have a word with her. Dojo looked at Kari before speaking.

"You have a lot of nerve yelling at Raimundo like that. He was always looking out for you and putting you first before himself...Out of the group he was always the one who worried the most about you, but you kept marking it as a lie." Dojo breathed.

Kari looked up at the dragon, her lips quivering and her eyes watering as tears streamed down her face. "D-dojo... " She sniffled. "Wh-what's wrong with me? Why am I doing this? I don't like this, I try but I can't help but think it's a lie... I-I  just... can never make a clear difference between the two..." Kari looked so upset andheart-broken and confused. Dojo let out a sigh as he gave her a gentle look.

"Kari, I think it's because all your life you've always been bullied and no one wanted to be your friend, but few in your town and Kaiser...But now you have people who want to try being friends regardless how mean you act towards them and sometimes there's a little breaking point where they get upset...earlier when we got back and you weren't with us Raimundo had a huge rage fit because he didn't know where you were." Kari giggled.

"He did? R-really?" Kari seemed a little happy at this. "You sure?" Dojo looked at her before saying.

"I'm sure someone cannot fake being mad to the point yelling and shaking me and Kicking Omi in the head sending him flying off."   Kari laughed and hugged Dojo. "Thanks... I... I really needed this.. ! I-I've gotta go!" Kari then whipped her tears' kissing Dojo's snout and hopping off of the roof, almost tripping over her scarf but she caught herself as her feet skid for a moment to find traction. "R-rai?!" She called, running around the temple grounds. "Raimundo?!RAI?!!"

Raimundo was mindlessly punching and kicking a dummy at the training grounds trying to get out of this feeling of depression. Raimundo wincing at the pain that was in his chest hitting the dummy harder trying to keep his mind off of Kari, she'd never like him. Kari tripped and scraped her face, getting a cut but she stood up and eventually stopped running as she arrived at the training grounds. She widened her eyes at Raimundo and gulped, inhaling.

"RAIMUNDO!!!" She called and tackled him. "I'M SOOOOO SORRY!!! DOJO TOLD ME!!! I'M SORRY I'M REALLY SORRY!!!" Shewhined, her face splotchy from earlier and blood running down her cheek from her cut, getting some of it on his shirt. "I'm sorry... Will you ever f-forgive me? I've been so mean and I shouldn't have been. I've just been so used to others hating me and hurting me and---and...." Kari choked on her words as she gulped. Raimundo stopped as he was tackled to the surprise it being Kari as she said how sorry she was and everything. Even though his heart was hurting just a moment ago it felt better now that she was hugging him.

When Raimundo looked down and saw blood he freaked out pulling her back a bit and reaching for a cloth he had in his pocket. "Kari you're bleeding, you tripped on your scarf again didn't you?"

"I am? Huh, oh haha, look at that, guess I am... I was... preoccupied... Guess it was from my trip..." Kari smiled nervously. Raimundo sighed as he wet the cloth with the near by water fountain and started to clean her face.

"Ow!" Kari hissed as the cut began to sting.

"Sorry Kari...You should be more careful Kari, I really hate it when you're hurt because it pains me to see you hurt...The way you treated me is all in the past, I was never mad at you for the way you treated me nor did I ever hate you for it Kari." Raimundo said finished cleaning her face and giving her a gentle and friendly smile. Kari blinked and nodded with an adorable smile.

"... I... I'm sorry." Kari gulped, not sure what else to say. "I'm really, really sorry." Raimundo laughed a bit.

"I can tell, you ran all this way just to come tell me...To be honest Kari, it kinda makes me happy to know you actually don't hate me." Kari blinked.

"Me hate you? No way!" Kari laughed. "... I guess we got off on the wrong foot. So lets restart." Kari backed away with a giggle. "Hey, I'm Kari Himura, call me Kari. What about you?" Kari held her hand out with a smile. Raimundo smiled back as he took her hand as he said.

"I'm Raimundo Pedrosa, you can call me Rai or Raimundo is cool too." He laughed a bit. Kari smirked and began to laugh adorably.

"Haha, we look like a bunch of kids don't we?" She asked with a childish grin. Raimundo laughed nodding his head in agreement.

"So Kari what you wanna do? It's evening and we don't have to worry about anything." Looking to her to see what she wanted to do. Kari smiled.

"How about video games?" She asked. "We could play versus mode on one of the games!" She looked really happy, happier than she had ever shown. Maybe their constant fighting in the past was for the best.

"Sure we can play that, sounds good." Raimundo said with a smile. Raimundo waited for Kari to lead to the way as to where they were playing the game as his stomach and chest were having bubbly fuzzy feelings.

Kari smiled and ran to the main temple, tripping once again on her scarf, she should really do something about that.. "... Ow..." She stood up, a little smudge on her face as she smiled like a dork, too happy to be upset.. Raimundo was shaking his head going over still holding the cloth.

"Geez Kari, give me a heart attack why don't you... please don't really do that, I'll be sad if you got hurt again." He said honestly cleaning off the new smudge carefully. "I'll have to start giving you piggyback rides around the temple if this keeps happening." Kari blushed.

"A-As if I'd let you!" Kari called, and walked off. Her flustered ness made her a little more clumsy as she AGAIN tripped on her scarf. "ARGH! WHY EVEN?! mmph!" Kari groaned and stood up, a very tiny cut on her nose. "Aw man that one stings like a paper cut... Ouch... " Kari tapped the cut and winced."WHY THE HELL AM I BEING SO CLUMSY?! I'M USUALLY REALLY GOOD ABOUT NOT TRIPPING OVER MY SCARF!!! WHY IS IT EVEN WORSE?!" Kari's thoughts screamed as she stood up. Raimundo picked her up heading to the temple just so they could get there and Kari can get there in one piece. Raimundo continued to walk.

"H-HEY P-PUT ME D-DOWN R-RAI!!" Kari yelped. "I-I'M FINE!! H-HONESTLY!!!" Raimundo kept on walking with no intentions of putting Kari down.

"If I put you down you're going to keep falling and by time we get to the temple it'll be bedtime and then we won't be able to play the video game." He said looking at her.

"N-NO I WONT!! I WON'T TRIP ANY MORE!" Raimundo raised an eyebrow. He didn't want to put her down since he actually liked carrying her around in his arms strangely, but sighed putting her down on her feet, but then fixing her scarf so she couldn't trip on it.

"There now you should be alright to walk." Raimundo smiled.

"I-i'm n-not an infant R-rai... I can-- whoa!" Kari pretended to trip over her own feet then caught herself, laughing. "haha!! That one was just so I could see your face! Come on, let's go." Kari snickered, proud of herself. Raimundo shook his head as he followed by her side as this funny feeling inside him was only getting stronger. Kari sat down and handed him acontroler. "We're gonna play a racing game." She smiled and the game began to start.

"I'm down for that. I bet I can beat you." Raimundo smirked taking the controlled thanking her with a nod of his head. The game started Kari was in second place while Raimundo was in first place until she used one of the items she stored up and barely won.

"YEAH!!!" Kari jumped up happily. "Yeah! That was one of the games you were good at too!" Kari giggled. Raimundo sat there jaw dropped, he never lost at this game. But here he was like an idiot staring at the screen with the blue and black "LOSER" sign before snapping out of it.

"Wow you're the first one to beat me at this game Kari, not even Kimiko can beat me." Raimundo says laughing.

"Really? EVEN BETTER CUZ I'VE NEVER PLAYED IT BEFORE!!!" Kari laughed and fell on her back, holding her gut. Raimundo looked at her and rolled his eyes. He wasn't mad he lost to her, it was about time he had a challenge at this game. Then Raimundo looked out the window to see it dark outside.

"Well look at that, it's night time already." Raimundo says while yawning a bit. He looked over look at Kari who was on her back laughing. Kari smiled and looked at him.

"Oh yeah. Well, thanks for playing with me. It was fun." Kari giggled and then went to her room, once again pretending to fell then giggling as she waved at Raimundo, showing her true smile which suited her nicely. He got up nodding his head.

"Yeah I had a lot of fun playing with you too. However next time I will win!" Raimundo said giving a smirk. Kari rolled her eyes and smirked. Raimundo rubbed the back of his neck slightly feeling a bit uneasy.

"Hey um Kari...It's kinda dark out, how about I uhh...Walk you back to your room?" Raimundo asked her so he could rest easy at night knowing she got back to her room safely. Kari blinked then shrugged.

"I wouldn't mind the company." Raimundo smiled as he walked over to her and nodding his head. After turning the light off to the temple room they headed off to Kari's room. They walked and Raimundo looked up to admire the Waning moon in the sky that was out tonight.

"The moon looks beautiful tonight along with the little stars." He said while still staring. Kari looked up and giggled.

"It looks like my symbol!" Kari smiled then sighed happily. "Y-you know I've always had a strange connection to the moon. Well, at the time I didn't know why butevery time I look up at it... It just made me feel... I dunno, protected I guess." Kari's symbol's began to glow. "I was always sad when it was a moonless night, it felt like... like... N-never mind." Kari sighed and kept walking. Raimundo kept up following her.

"Felt kinda like what? T-that is if you feel like telling me...But you don't have to if you don't want to Kari." He said wanting to know more about her. Kari gulped and stopped and turned to Raimundo.

"I've never told this to anyone, not even Kaiser. So be honored." Kari took in a breath. Raimundo nodded his head as he listened carefully. "When I was three my parents were killed in front of my very eyes while my brother carried me to an orphanage. The people were bodyguards for a scientist who wanted to do tests on me because of my abilities. When I was five I was adopted into an abusive family while my brotherwas adopted by some other family. My adoptive parents always got drunk and barely had food for me to eat. When it's a moonless night I feel helpless like I did back then. When I was three, loosing my parents and when I was five enduring abuse and torture from bullies and abusive from adoptive parents." Kari's tone was low and serious as she spoke, her eyes narrow showing that she wasn't playing around.

Raimundo felt his heartbreak after hearing Kari's life story about losing her family, being bullied, and everything else. Raimundo found himself pulling Kari into a hug as he rested his head on top of her's. He couldn't believe how much she's been through and still able to smile, it amazed him.

"K-kari, I promise you that while you're here you won't be bullied or hurt by anyone. And I promise to always be there for you when you need someone whether it's a shoulder to cry on, or to talk to or just anything just please come to me so I can help you." Raimundo's voice trembled a little bit as he spoke, he was going to make sure none of that happened to her again if it was the last thing he did. Kari blinked in shock then smiled.

"P-promise you won't tell anyone?" She asked, about to cry. Raimundo nodded his head.

"I promise with all my heart to not tell a living soul what you've told me and things you tell me in the future." He smoothed her hair as he was still hugging her protecting her from the loneliness. Kari shivered and began to cry.

"Th-thank you." Kari sniffled. Little did they know, Dojo, Omi, Kimiko and Clay were spying on them again. Kimiko holding Omi's mouth shut.

"I feel bad for her... I had a feeling She had been through a lot." Kimiko frowned. Dojo nodded his head, sniffling and crying silently.

"I thought she had a tough life, but I didn't think it could be THAT bad of a life she lived..." Dojo frowned a bit blowing his nose into a tissue. Clay tipping his hat down frowning feeling like he was going to cry.

"That sucks, and all of us have been mighty lucky to not have to live our lives like that." Clay frowned. Kari sighed then backed away from Raimundo and smiled at him, a few tears still rolling down her cheeks. Raimundo smiled to her.

"Feel better?" He asked Kari. Kari nodded happily and wiped her face.

"Y-yeh... Much better thanks." She then began to walk to her room again. "Tell anyone and I'll kick your ass." Kari growled. Raimundo failed his hands in defence.

"I told you I promise not to tell anyone about anything we talk about that is between us unless you give the okay." He said not wanting to get hurt. Kari smiled and giggled. Eventually they arrived at her room door and Kari told Raimundo goodnight and got ready for bed after entering her room and closing the door. Raimundo said his goodnight to her and once she was inside her room he soon went off on his way happily to his room to sleep for the night. Raimundo got the feeling that he was going to have a good night's sleep as he got into his room closing the door behind him and went to change into his pajamas before hitting the mat to catch some Z's.