Fanfic / Shadows Awakening

Shadows Awakening is a Jackie Chan Adventures fanfic by Ander Arias, and a part of Project Dark Jade.

After Daolon Wong escapes prison, he finds an artifact that uses to restore his lost powers, but said artifact also partially reawakens Jade's Superpowered Evil Side, the Queen of the Shadowkhan, granting her many magical and superhuman abilities. While Jade still retains her mind, it will be only a matter of time before she's corrupted by the Queen's influence. Now the Chans must recover the very same artifact if they want to return her back to normal, which is in Wong's hands. Meanwhile, Wong will seek to uncover the power of the Shadowkhan for his own goals.

Description: Jade finds herself as the wielder of a great power, but said power comes with a price. Her only hope to return back to human before having to pay the ultimate price lies in one of her family's worst enemies, who plans to unleash an unspeakable horror into the world.

This fic contains examples of:

• All There in the Manual: The author's deviantArt page has pictures of the wizard and kunoichi Shadowkhan, as well as Jade using some of her powers and Wong's new Dark Chi Warriors.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us:
  • In chapter 2, Wong attacks Section 13 to steal the Talismans, and in the process gives Shendu the opening to summon his Ninja Khan, leading to a brief Mêlée à Trois across the facility.
  • Ten chapters later, after Kyosuke/The Phantom sneaks in and uses the Dark Treasures to revive himself, he unleashes his Ghost Khan, possessing half the agents and turning them on the others.
  • During the Final Battle, the Queen launches multiple attacks across San Francisco, dividing Section 13's manpower enough for Kyosuke to launch another attack on the facility.
• All Your Powers Combined: The King of the Shadowkhan can summon every tribe. The Dark Champion can do this as well but only in the Forge of Shadows.
• Amazon Brigade: The Shadowkhan tribe that Jade manages to create is made entirely of kunoichi (female ninja).
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Jade is listing reasons she shouldn't trust the Queen, she mentions how the Queen tried to ally herself with Shendu, kill Jackie, how the Queen antagonized everyone, and finally, The Queen's sense of fashion (or lack thereof).
• Artifact of Doom:
  • The Dark Treasures — formerly the Imperial Regalia of Japan — were corrupted into this by the Dark Champion of the Shadowkhan (The Phantom) long ago. In addition to the fact that combined they can open the Forge of Shadows (the place where the Shadowkhan were originally created), they also have corrupting influences of their own; at the very least, the Kusanagi sword can possess the person using it and turn them into a berserker.
  • The Mirror of Despair puts Tohru in a coma when he looks into it, trapping him in a vision of a Bad Future until Uncle is able to wake him up.
  • The Jewel creates shadow doppelgangers of the people it's used on. They're intangible and physically harmless, but torment the originals with their darkest fears and doubts.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Kyosuke/The Phantom became the leader of the Shadowkhan because he was convinced that a weak man like the Emperor didn't deserve to rule just because his ancestors did.
• Back from the Dead: Kyosuke/The Phantom uses the combined power of the Dark Treasures to resurrect himself.
• Bad Future: The Mirror of Despair traps Tohru in a vision of one of these — the heroes managed to defeat Wong, only for the Queen to take control of Jade, and use the Shadowkhan to kill the other heroes and take over the world. San Francisco is shown to be in ruins, with the humans there being emotionally broken down slaves.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: The Queen kills the Oni Generals for refusing to pledge allegiance to her.
• Bait-and-Switch: A meta example. When the Phantom sends Wong to retrieve the first Oni mask, it looks like the story will turn into another alternate take on Season 4... until the Phantom forbids Wong to go after the other masks (as that would only aid their enemy Tarakudo), sending him on a different quest. From then on, the story focuses on a different set of MacGuffins with the Queen ultimately killing the Oni and destroying their masks, eliminating any future uses of them in a story.
• Big Bad
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Daolon Wong forms one with The Phantom, and The Queen of the Shadowkhan has one with Tarakudo.
    • Big Bad Ensemble: The two Big Bad Duumvirates have different goals, and are actually enemies.
  • This complex situation is resolved in Chapter 13, when Wong is defeated, but the Queen escapes from Jade, at which point Kyosuke declares loyalty to her. This would mean that the Queen is now the definitive Big Bad.
• Blood Knight: Ironfist seems to like combat a lot.
• The Brute: Ironfist, one of Daolon Wong's new dark chi warriors.
• Butt-Monkey: Jackie. Jade gives him the Horse Talisman as a result of this.
• Casting a Shadow: In her Shadowkhan form, Jade can cast dark chi blasts.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
  • Wong has finally gotten wise to this as he warns the Phantom not to betray him.
  • Tarakudo and the Oni betrayed the Phantom and his colleagues in the past.
  • The Queen, aware that Tarakudo will betray her once he doesn't need her anymore, preemptively betrays him first by cutting a deal with The Phantom.
• Clingy MacGuffin:
  • Wong creates a belt that makes the Talismans inserted into it this, as only he can remove them once they're in the slots, with the belt itself being bound to him.
  • Ironically enough, Uncle later creates bracelets that work in a similar way for the remaining Talismans after realizing what Wong did.
• Combo Platter Powers:
  • The Talismans, as usual.
  • Also, Jade gets a measure of the Ox Talisman's Super-Strength,a bit of the Rabbit's Super-Speed, and a superhuman jumping ability in addition to her Casting a Shadow powers.
  • Also, Jade has Immortality from the Dog Talisman, Viper has the Ox and Dragon Talismans (to complement her Fragile Speedster nature), Jackie has just the Horse Talisman (because he's a Butt-Monkey), Tohru has the Rabbit (because he's a bit of a Mighty Glacier), and Uncle takes the Rat and Sheep.
  • Jade later gains levitation abilities.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Wong references the fact that he only ever had two Talisman powers when he tries to use the Ring to obtain them all and only gets the Rooster and Pig.
  • Jade recalls the events of the canon episode with the Queen when listing reasons she shouldn’t trust her Enemy Within.
  • Uncle compares the clothes the people in the Bad Future of Tohru’s dream are wearing to those humans wore in the Demon World two-part episode.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Due to being unprepared for Wong's new warriors, the J-Team suffers a serious case of The Worf Effect, and are forced to flee for their lives.
  • Wong and his Wizard Khan get a dose of this themselves when Jade creates her Mage Killer Kunoichi Khan.
• Cursed with Awesome: Although Jade enjoys having powers a LOT, unless she can regain her humanity with the Ring, she'll undergo a Face–Heel Turn and become the Queen once again.
• Daddy's Little Villain: How Tarakudo sees the Queen of the Shadowkhan, much to her annoyance.
• Dark Action Girl: Fang.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Desite being half Shadowkhan, Jade still wants to use her abilities for good.
• Demonic Possession:
  • Ironfist is possessed by the first Oni mask when it accidentally lands on his face, though the Chans manage to get it off.
  • The Kusanagi possesses Viper when she wields it, turning her into a berserker who blindly attacks everyone around her.
  • Kyosuke's Ghost Khan are able to pull this off, as shown during the battle in Section 13 in chapter 12. Viper becomes a victim of one, and everyone laments how this happened to her again.
• Demoted to Extra: Tarakudo and the Oni Generals. While they were an integral part of the plot of Season 4, here they only have very small appearances, with only Tarakudo and the Ninja General having significant (but still small) parts in the story.
• Drives Like Crazy: At one point, Jade has one of her Kunoichi Khan drive a getaway car for her and Jackie. It doesn't know how to drive and has to rely on her mental directions, but since she doesn't really know how to drive either, it goes all over the place.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It wasn't easy, but the J-Team made it through the story intact, beating the Queen and saving the world.
• Eleventh Hour Super Power: Uncle creates a chi sword for Jackie (which works similarly to Daolon Wong's Dark Chi Warriors' weapons) for the fight in the Forge of Shadows. In the next chapter (the Final Battle), Viper also gets a chi spear.
• Elite Mooks: The Wizard Khan that Wong learns to create.
• Enemy Within: The Queen is still active, and while she's being kept at bay by the Tiger Talisman, she's working on corrupting Jade.
• Enemy Without: Just as the Queen's about to fully corrupt Jade, the talisman separates them, much to the Queen's surprise, though she's not complaining.
• Evil Versus Evil: As stated above, the two Big Bad Duumvirates are opposed to each other.
• Exact Words: The gates of the Forge of Shadows are indestructible. But as Captain Black proves via explosives, the walls aren't. Kyosuke admits this was on oversight.
• Face Death with Dignity: The Oni generals, even as they're being killed by the Queen, don't beg for mercy.
• Fallen Hero: The Phantom.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Jade thinks The Queen is this.invoked
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Ironfist, Tempest and Fang, respectively.
• Final Battle: Chapter 14.
• Foreshadowing: The author had a picture of the two new Shadowkhan tribes up a few chapters before they appeared in-story.
• For Want Of A Nail: The Phantom's involvement pretty much derails the plot of Season 4 (see Bait-and-Switch above).

• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Phantom was once an ordinary man named Kyosuke, who fell to darkness and became the Dark Champion of the Shadowkhan.
• Godzilla Threshold: During the battle in the Forge of Shadows, the newly-empowered Wong overpowers the J-Team so much that Jade takes off the Tiger Talisman, risking being corrupted completely in exchange for the strength to beat him.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power:
  • The seemingly useless Tiger Talisman is what prevents Jade from turning completely evil. And after she and the Queen are separated, it lets her keep enough dark chi balanced with her good chi so that she's willing to fight the Queen, rather than be an Actual Pacifist.
  • Also, Uncle uses the astral projection powers of the Sheep Talisman to wake Tohru from his coma.
• The Heavy: Wong is the central member of the Big Bad Ensemble, being the one who set the plot in motion and still drives it, while the others manipulate from the sidelines. Until Chapter 13, which ends with him back in jail and the Queen taking on this role.
• Henshin Hero: Jade can willingly transform between her human and Shadowkhan states, and needs to be a Shadowkhan to use her abilities.
• Hidden Agenda Villain:
  • The Phantom. It isn't entirely clear what his goals are, just that he's using Wong to achieve them. It's implied that he wants revenge on Tarakudo for betraying him though.
  • As it turns out, he just wants to create someone worthy to rule the Shadowkhan, as he admits to not being worthy himself. When the Queen proves more worthy than Wong, he switches loyalties.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Jade cannot stay in her Shadowkhan form for too long or the negative chi energy could consume her. Even with the Tiger Talisman, there's still a risk of a Face–Heel Turn if she spends too much time in her alternate form. She can't use her Super-Strength too much, as she is breathless upon reaching her limit. Finally, she can only summon 5 Kunoichi Khan at a time while the Tiger Talisman is keeping The Corruption in check.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Turns out Tarakudo was imprisoned in the Shadow Realm because when he fled there to hid the mask made to seal him, his enemies sealed him inside.
  • The Queen is defeated when Uncle and Tohru invoke a Super-Power Meltdown via her unbalanced chi, which she herself unbalanced by going One-Winged Angel.
• I Just Want to Be Special: If it wasn't for the fact that she'll become the Queen again if she overuses her powers, Jade would try as hard as she could to retain her abilities.
• In a Single Bound: In her Shadowkhan form, Jade can also jump really high.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Uncle enters Tohru's mind in order to wake him up from the Bad Future vision that the Mirror of Despair put him in.
• Lighter and Softer: When compared to other Project Dark Jade fanfics, it certainly feels like this.
• Living Shadow: Technically, all the Shadowkhan would count as this, but the Phantom shows it most prominently, his eyes being the only visible features he has, the rest of him being a solid black, wraithlike being.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: The Mirror of Despair traps Tohru in one, a possible Bad Future where Jade had a Face–Heel Turn after defeating Wong and killed Jackie, Uncle and Viper, and then took over the world.
• Mage Killer: Fang, one of Daolon Wong's new dark chi warriors, was created to serve as this.
• MacGuffin: The Ring of Kur-Asan, the artifact that restored Wong's powers and gave Jade her Shadowkhan abilities, and which the heroes need to retrieve from Wong if they're ever going to change Jade back.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: Wong considers doing this with the remaining artifacts, basically purposefully losing them to the J-Team and them stealing them back all at once.
  • It's actually Kyosuke/The Phantom who does so, however, also using the combined magic of the Dark Treasures to revive himself.
• MacGuffin Guardian: The Chamber of Wishes, containing the Ring of Kur-Asan, is protected by a giant scorpion.
  • The Hidden Shadowkhan Temple is guarded by an army of The Undead.
  • The Unseen Enclave, where Solomon's Archive is located, is guarded by an efreet.
  • The hidden Himalaya shrine where the Jewel was hidden is protected by yeti with ice powers.
• Magic Knight: The Dark Champion.
• Meaningful Name: Wong’s new warriors all have names that have meaning in regards to their powers.
• Mental World: Jade's talks with the Queen take place here, with the power of the Tiger Talisman manifesting as two tigers that keep the Queen away from Jade. The Phantom can enter this world as well.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Wong manages to transform himself into a Shadowkhan and create his own tribe of wizard Shadowkhan. At the same time, Jade learns to make a tribe of kunoichi.
• Mythology Gag: In the Bad Future Lotus-Eater Machine, Uncle sees some of the other Shadowkhan tribes from canon.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Wong's use of the Clingy MacGuffin trick gave Uncle the idea to use it to protect the remaining Talismans.
  • While it doesn't bite him on the ass, Wong releasing his old Dark Chi Warriors from the Urn of Wei Cheing in order to use them to create his new ones leaves the urn empty, allowing Tohru and Uncle to use it to seal Kyosuke.
  • The Queen kills off the Oni Generals when they refuse to swear loyalty to her.
• No-Sell: Thanks to Jade’s levitation powers, Ironfist’s Shockwave Stomp attack is useless if she catches it.
  • She's also immune to attempts by Kyosuke's Ghost Khan to possess her.
    • Uncle uses some of her hair in a spell to make the others immune as well.
  • Kyosuke takes an RPG to the face, and while hurt, it has far from the intended purpose.
• One-Winged Angel: During the Final Battle, the Queen absorbs a massive amount of Shadowkhan in order to transform into an adult demon-like form she calls the Empress of the Shadowkhan. Given the character involved, it naturally gets lampshaded.
• Origins Episode: Chapter 11 is The Phantom's Start of Darkness, and even reveals how Shendu got his hands on the Ninja Khan mask.
• Our Genies Are Different: The Unseen Enclave is protected by an efreet (a fire genie).
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The Phantom is the ghost of one of the wizards who created the Shadowkhan (who mutated themselves into Shadowkhan as well in the process). In fact, the narration even specifically states that he looks like a ghost or wraith.
  • It turns out that his tribe of Shadowkhan are the same, except that they can possess people.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Wong's new warriors were created by corpses, but other than that, don't seem to have much in common with typical zombies.
• Power Copying: The Ring gave Jade a significant amount of jumping ability from the Rabbit Talisman, and a portion of the Ox's Super-Strength.
• Power Floats: In the first battle against Wong, Jade unlocks some Rooster Talisman power, and figures out how to hover.
• The Power of Hate: It was Kyosuke's rage at Tarakudo's betrayal that allowed his spirit to linger on as the Phantom when his body died.
• Public Domain Artifact: The Imperial Regalia of Japan. The originals were stolen and corrupted by the Dark Champion of the Shadowkhan long ago, with the ones on public display being duplicates made to hide the fact.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Wong's new dark chi warriors are more along the lines of this than his original ones were (mostly due to having personalities).
• Relationship Upgrade: Jackie and Viper become an Official Couple by the end of the fic.
• Ring of Power: The Ring of Kur-Asan mentioned above.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Queen is trapped in Jade's mind, with the Tiger Talisman's power taking the form of two tigers that keep her from making any direct moves to control Jade's body.
  • Eventually, her corruption reaches the point that the talisman separates them, freeing her from Jade. However, after she's defeated in the Final Battle, she's reabsorbed by Jade and trapped again.
  • During the Final Battle, Kyosuke ends up sealed inside the Urn of Wei Cheing by Uncle and Tohru.
• Sequel Hook: The epilogue involves Captain Black recruiting the J-Team to head a new subdivision within Section 13 dedicated to magical threats, Tohru becomes a full chi wizard and takes on Jade as an apprentice, and in the last scene, Daolon Wong's apprentice emerges to take control of his resources (like his Dark Chi Warriors and castle), and the Big Bad mantle.
• Shipper on Deck: Like in canon, Jade would love to see Jackie and Viper hooking up, but here she takes this trope further, since she also wants them to have children as well.
• Shadow Archetype: The Phantom is this to Jade. They both have enormous potential, cunning minds, a casual way of acting and a desire tp prove themselves. However, the Phantom pretty much joined an evil organization, opposed his mentor and attacked the kingdom he sworn to protect. Jade may or may not do the same.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Jade learns that Hand Seals are a real thing, she thinks that they were only used in a certain anime about ninjas.
    • Another one to Naruto: the Queen of the Shadowkhan told Jade that she should became Wong's apprentice, then betray him once he's no more use to her, like what Sasuke did to Orochimaru.
  • Jade avoids Ironfist's Shockwave Stomp by levitating, claiming that "Ground can't harm Flying".
  • The Sword’s energy attack seems suspicially similar to Ichigo Kurosaki’s Getsuga Tensho from Bleach.
  • Daolon Wong is referred to as the "Darkest Mage", a title first given to him in Queen of All Oni.
• Smash Mook: Ironfist. Unlike his two partners, he has no kind of special ability other than being very strong. His main (and only) attack pattern is trying to pulverize his enemies via fist slams. It's more effective than it sounds.
• Start of Darkness: Chapter 11 details the Phantom's origins — he was once a samurai named Kyosuke, who was the protege of the Emperor's High Shogun, but who grew unhappy with the fact that the Emperor is only ruler because of the supposed divine right of his ancestors. Because of this, when he was sent to infiltrate the Brotherhood of Shadows (the dark wizards who created the Shadowkhan), they were able to convince him to join them, becoming their leader, the Dark Champion. He then led them on a conquest of Japan, until he was abandoned by Tarakudo, and struck down by his former master. With his dying breaths, his rage at Tarakudo's betrayal transformed him into the Phantom.
• Stripperiffic: When describing the Queen's dress, the story notes that it's too revealing for a prepubescent girl. The Queen herself doesn't seem to find a problem with it.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: During the battle in the Forge of Shadows, Wong becomes convinced that he can defeat the heroes entirely by himself, without help from his Dark Chi Warriors. He's wrong, but just barely.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Hasn't turn evil yet, but when Jade turns Shadowkhan, her negative traits become more prominent.
• Super-Power Meltdown: The Queen is defeated when Uncle and Tohru invoke one of these in her by destablizing her chi (which she herself unbalanced by going One-Winged Angel).
• Super-Speed: Though not as much as the Rabbit Talisman, Jade has increased speed and agility as part of her powers.
• Super-Strength: Jade becomes much stronger whenever she turns Shadowkhan, Uncle explaining it as the The Ring of Kur-Asan giving her a bit of the Ox Talisman's energy from when she accidentally absorbed the Talisman powers.
• Third-Person Person: Fang speaks like this.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Demon Archive, as shown in canon. Here, it's revealed that it used to belong to Wong before somehow loosing it to the Demon Sorcerers. Wong uses the Ring of Kur-Asan to retrieve it, even though it was destroyed in canon (apparently that doesn't matter to the Ring).
• Turned Against Their Masters: Ironfist is briefly possessed by the Oni mask and turns against Wong, but returns to his master after it's removed.
• The Unfought: Tarakudo is never released from his imprisonment, and is last seen being permanently cut off from the real world by the Queen.
• Villain Team-Up: Wong and The Phantom, the latter of whom makes it clear from the get go that he's using Wong to further his own agenda.
  • The Queen and Tarakudo.
  • The Phantom (along with the other wizards that created the Shadowkhan) once attempted one with Tarakudo and the Oni, but the Oni king and his followers betrayed them and seized the Shadowkhan for themselves.
  • The Queen and The Phantom cut a deal behind their partners' backs — if Wong failed in his plans and the Queen proved herself worthy, the Phantom would swear loyalty to her. And he does.
• Was Once a Man: The Phantom mentions that he was once a human dark wizard, like Wong, but the creation of the lesser, mindless Shadowkhan turned them into Shadowkhan as well (though it should be noted that he said that because of the power boost and the fact that they kept their free will, they didn't mind that much).
  • Wong also becomes a Shadowkhan in his Mid-Season Upgrade. The Queen ultimately reverses the process.
• Weather Manipulation: Tempest, the third of Wong's new warriors, has this as his primary power set (though it seems to be fairly limited in range, as he has only affected the area where he has been fighting so far).
• Wham Episode: Chapter 13: The heroes manage to defeat Kyosuke and Wong, and retrieve the Ring of Kur-Asan and use it take back Wong's stolen Talismans. However, before they can use the Ring to restore Jade, the Queen's corruption completes, resulting in the Tiger Talisman splitting Jade and the Queen apart. She strips Wong of his Shadowkhan powers, at which point Kyosuke reveals that they cut a deal in secret, and that the Queen has now earned his loyalty, setting her up as the new sole Big Bad.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Subverted: though it's mentioned that the Rat and Sheep Talismans are useless in combat, the Tiger Talisman is the only thing standing between Jade and a Face–Heel Turn if she overuses her powers.
• The Worf Effect: The first time that the J-Team fight Wong's new dark chi warriors, they lose badly and barely escape. This demonstates how dangerous the new warriors are.

• Would Hit a Girl: Ironfist outright states that he has no problem beating girls to death.
• Xanatos Gambit:
  • As the Phantom explains, the hunt for the Dark Treasures is a win-win for him, as no matter who manages to gather all three items, as long as they're all in the same place, he can use their combined power to revive himself.
  • The Queen's invasion of San Francisco by opening multiple portals at several points of the city. If the heroes decide to keep closing the portals, Jackie is left alone against an enemy he certainly cannot defeat; if the heroes remain with Jackie, then nobody will close the portals and San Francisco will be flooded with Shadowkhan.

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