![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: All your worries are stars
Author: marcicat
Rating: T
Fandom: Guardian (TV)
Summary: AU -- Zhao Yunlan is a government employee assigned to a remote ‘research station.’ Shen Wei and Ye Zun are alien ambassadors who spend as little time as possible at their official residence. Together, they help kids meet a spaceship!
Notes: Written for the Brush & Lantern’s August 2019 Challenge, “aliens, demons, superpowers.” Inspired by the idea of an “Escape to Witch Mountain’ AU.
***********
There was a mountain. A mountain people whispered about, with a reputation for mysterious lights and noises, where people appeared out of nowhere and disappeared the same way.
Local legend said the mountain was haunted. It wasn’t.
Local legend also said there was a secret government facility hidden somewhere on the mountain. That also wasn’t true. There was, however, one government employee, in a well-appointed cabin officially classified as a research station.
Zhao Yunlan had been “promoted” to the location after irritating the Xingdu Bureau one too many times. His official assignment was to record weather observations. Unofficially, he was there to offer on-site liaising with Dixing arrivals and departures. And in practice, he spent most of his time playing forest ranger for lost hikers. He had an assigned team of zero, a practical team of five, and a standing request for additional resources that somehow never made it through budget approval.
Though it was a poorly kept secret from the general population, the Xingdu Bureau was perfectly well aware of the alien presence on Haixing, and their use of Kunlun Mountain. They preferred to think that Dixing’s twin ambassadors and the Yashou Alliance that policed that presence closer to the city was keeping them informed of everything they needed to know, and if not, well -- that’s why they’d assigned Zhao Yunlan, wasn’t it?
***********
“I’m taking your jacket.”
The lump of blankets on the bed rustled. “What? Why?”
He perched on the edge of the bed and poked at the lump. Of course, that’s what finally got a response. Not the radio call, or him getting out of bed, or when he accidentally-on-purpose dropped his flashlight on the floor. He’d almost thought Ye Zun was going to pretend to sleep through the entire thing -- he was still irritated that they were on the call roster at all while they were supposed to be on vacation.
“Because Shen Wei took mine, and yours looks more like it could be a search and rescue jacket. Zhu Hong says Shen Wei’s coat makes him look like one of her students.”
“Fine,” Ye Zun muttered, pushing the blankets aside and sitting up. “Where are you going?”
“Lin Jing radioed up from the lodge. Two hikers checked in with him and said they were headed for the campground. Chu Shuzhi says they never showed up.”
Ye Zun waved his hand, and the room was filled with a soft glow. He frowned. “So send Chu Shuzhi to look for them. We’re on vacation.”
“He’s got a campsite full of kids. Guo Changcheng might push me off the mountain if we pull him off babysitting duty right now.”
The light brightened slightly, and Ye Zun tossed him his radio just as he realized he’d left it by the bed. “You’re right, and I don’t like it. More ghost hunters?”
He laughed -- it would never not be funny to him that so many people thought ghosts were easier to believe in than aliens. “I don’t think so. As far as we know they’re just a couple of directionally-challenged Haixingren. You can go back to sleep. Da Qing’s already out scouting for them.”
“As far as you know?” Ye Zun repeated.
Zhao Yunlan shrugged. “One of them stayed in the car when they checked in. The one who went inside didn’t set off Lin Jing’s detector, though. So, 50% Haixingren for sure.”
“Or Lin Jing’s detector is broken again. Besides, Haixingren can be dangerous too. I should come with you,” Ye Zun said, but he didn’t actually move to get out of bed.
“You hate night hikes. Da Qing and I can handle it. If they wanted to make trouble, they wouldn’t have bothered checking in, right?”
He hated it when people wanted to make trouble. Ghost hunters, he didn’t mind so much. But people who guessed aliens instead, and decided to show up and try to start a fight -- or people in the know who wanted to take a shot at Shen Wei and Ye Zun -- if that was the type their mystery hikers were, he wanted them off his mountain.
“Besides,” he added, tightening his laces, “I’ll call if we need you.”
Ye Zun shook his head. “Da Qing will call, you mean. You never call, even when you should. Come here.”
He sat on the side of the bed, and Ye Zun tugged him closer, until their foreheads were touching. “Be careful,” he murmured.
“I’m always careful.” He smiled as he said it, and they both knew it was a half-truth at best. He rested his hands on Ye Zun’s shoulders. “You think I don’t know you have an actual ambassadorial residence in the city? I may not be able to do all the things you can, but I would never take your safety less than seriously.”
“Everyone knows we’d rather be here,” Ye Zun said. “It’s your own safety I wish you would take more seriously.”
He leaned back and ran his fingers through Ye Zun’s hair. It was getting long again. “You and Shen Wei are the best things to ever happen to me. You think anything could stop me from coming back to you?”
Ye Zun smiled, and it took all of his willpower not to kick off his boots and climb back under the blankets. “Go, then,” Ye Zun said. “So you can come back. Make sure you tell them you’re on vacation!”
***********
He hadn’t made it more then ten minutes down the trail before Da Qing leapt out of the trees and pounced on the bright circle created by the flashlight beam. And then he quickly sat down and licked his paw as if it had been some other cat that had done such an undignified thing.
“Did you find them?” Zhao Yunlan asked.
“Did I find them?” Da Qing repeated, sounding affronted. “Of course I found them!”
He waited, following Da Qing as he stalked ahead down the trail. “They’re closer than I’d like,” Da Qing said finally. “They must have been headed straight for us.”
Meaning they weren’t anymore. “And now?”
“One of them is injured. It doesn’t look bad; probably a twisted ankle. The other one is --” His pause went on a little too long, and Zhao Yunlan started guessing.
“Bad at first aid?” he said. “Trying to build a fire? Please don’t say trying to summon a ghost.”
Da Qing snorted. “No. But she seems a lot more agitated than a lost hiker should be.”
“Maybe she’s scared of the dark.”
“I doubt it. I think she’s Dixingian.”
He frowned. “You think?” Usually Da Qing could tell -- he claimed it was cat superiority, but Shen Wei thought it might be a genetic Yashou trait.
Da Qing suddenly froze. “Wait. They’re moving again; headed this way.”
He didn’t ask if Da Qing was sure. “Can we intercept them at the trail crossing?” There was a decent-sized clearing there -- big enough for four people, easy. Or five, if things got out of hand.
“I’m a cat, not a GPS tracker,” Da Qing grumbled.
“Oh?” He feigned surprise. “Is there something even the great King of the cats can’t do?”
“Ha! I can beat them there if we pick up the pace. The only thing I don’t know is whether you can keep up!”
Their mystery hikers somehow reached the trail crossing first, but then stopped. They weren’t making any effort to be quiet, either. He looked at where he assumed Da Qing was pacing him in the trees. “Are they talking about —?”
“Being hopelessly lost on a well-marked trail?” Da Qing said. “Sounds like it. You think it’s a ploy?”
It would be an — unusual tactic for an anti-alien group, and even stranger for an actual Dixingian, but it wasn’t impossible. He shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
“Everything okay?” he called loudly, striding forward.
From behind him he heard Da Qing hiss, “Why are you like this?” He thought there might have been an ‘I blame your father’ after it, but it could have been wishful thinking.
“Do you need any help?” he called. He stepped into the clearing and was immediately blinded by a flashlight beam in his eyes.
“Stay back!”
He put his hands up and tried to look harmless. “Hello!” he said. “I’m Zhao Yunlan, I’m here to offer aid.”
The light switched to pointing at the ground, and he blinked the spots out of his eyes. “How did you find us?” one of the women said — the one holding the flashlight. The other one was sitting down, and had an ankle wrapped.
“You’re on the trail,” he said, pointing at the sign.
“And you’re just out for a night hike, is that it?”
He thought she sounded awfully suspicious for someone who had, in fact, said they were going on a night hike.
“I live on the mountain,” he said, gesturing vaguely back the way he’d come. “At the research station. The campsite radioed and said two hikers hadn’t showed up. Standard night search protocol. The mountain can be dangerous.”
He’d intended it as a justification for tracking them down. He didn’t realize she’d taken it as a threat until she stepped towards him. “We told you to leave us alone!”
He lifted his hands a little higher. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “Have we met?”
And then the clearing suddenly had two extra people in it. No, three — a man and two women. The man bent over his knees and didn’t seem to even notice him; the women stared with unnerving accuracy at the trees where Da Qing was watching. “Come out,” one of them said. “We know you’re there.” Lightning sparked between her fingers.
***********
Teleportation, electricity— they looked like Dixing powers, but anyone from Dixing should have recognized his name, or at least asked for one of the others. “You realize that is the opposite of an incentive,” Zhao Yunlan told her.
Da Qing stepped into the clearing anyway. “This isn’t necessary,” he said. “Lao Zhao makes a bad first impression, but he really is here to help.” He nodded towards the one with the wrapped ankle. “One of you is hurt. We have first aid supplies.”
“Don’t touch her!”
He needed to draw her attention, and raising his hands any further was going to look ridiculous, so he dropped them instead. “I think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding. Are you here for transport? Usually we ask people to let us know in advance, but there’s no need for threats.”
Mostly he wanted to know how they’d fooled Lin Jing’s detector. Unless one of them really was from Haixing? But why hide the size of their group? “I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Lu Ruomei,” the woman on the ground said quietly. “Maybe they can help.”
“Yes,” Zhao Yunlan said, nodding. “You should listen to your friend.”
“We don’t need any help! We can still stick to the plan.”
The one with the lightning power shook her head. “The plan doesn’t work without Zhu Jiu. We waited, but he never showed up. Either he backed out, or they found him.”
The one with the flashlight -- Lu Ruomei -- pointed it back at Zhao Yunlan. “But he said he’s from a research station. That means he works for the government. All we have to do is take these two hostage, and—“
Da Qing snorted, and everyone turned to look at him. “Sorry, sorry,” he said. “Don’t mind me. You were taking us hostage. And then?”
“You think we can’t?” The lightning girl shot a spark at him. There’s five of us, and two of you.”
Da Qing brushed invisible dust off his shoulder. “I think you overestimate how much the government wants us to stick around, and underestimate how much we’d do for you without any hostage-taking involved. But please feel free to continue; this is the most excitement we’ve had in weeks.”
Zhao Yunlan resisted the urge to groan. “Damn Cat, stop provoking them; I promised we’d be careful.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be lying,” Da Qing retorted. “Relationships are built on honest communication.”
“We have honest communication! I was being careful!”
The flashlight beam dropped as Lu Ruomei strode towards him. “I told you to stop talking!” She grabbed his wrist like she expected something to happen, and looked startled when it didn’t. Dark energy pulsed against her hand, and she jerked it back. “What was that?”
He sighed. “Now you’ve done it.” She glared, and reached for him again.
And then Ye Zun teleported between them, barefoot, wearing one of Zhao Yunlan’s t-shirts and an expression that would make even the fiercest opponent stop in their tracks.
Lu Ruomei actually took two steps backward.
In fact, everyone took a step back, except for the girl on the ground and the man still bent over his knees. He straightened up slowly, and said, “Prince Ye Zun.”
Ye Zun looked at him. Then he looked around the clearing, and his eyebrows slowly got higher and higher. “It’s been -- a very long time, since anyone called me that,” he said slowly. He took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. “Shen Wei, I need you.”
Time seemed to slow down. Shen Wei stepped through a portal at Ye Zun’s side and handed him Zhao Yunlan’s jacket.
“I’m not cold,” Ye Zun said.
“I know. I simply thought it would be comforting,” Shen Wei told him. Ye Zun said nothing, but he pulled the jacket on and zipped it up anyway.
Time sped up again. Shen Wei narrowed his eyes, and said, “Wu Tian’en. It’s been a long time.”
***********
Explanations took hours, and many, many cups of tea. By the end of it, Shen Wei was gripping his hand under the table, and Ye Zun was leaning against his other side.
Zhao Yunlan was careful not to dislodge either of them when he gestured with his cup. “You’re telling me that the lost ship -- the lost ship of legend, the one even I’ve heard of -- not only made it to Haixing and survived the crash, but the Dixingren who were on it had families? And now their kids want to see Dixing? And we’re only finding out about it now?”
“Not many survived the crash,” Wu Tian’en said tiredly. “There was no way to contact Dixing, and no way to know what the response would be if we did. We -- argued, and eventually scattered. No one thought our children would be born with Dixing abilities, so far from the source of our power.”
“And yet.” Ye Zun waved towards the porch, where the kids were either relaxing or coming up with a plan to kill them all and take the spaceship for themselves. Personally, Zhao Yunlan thought either was equally likely, but Shen Wei seemed charmed by them.
“Yes.” Wu Tian’en sighed. “They know almost nothing of Dixing; most of their parents never spoke of it. But they were drawn to each other. Hua Yuzhu found me while I was searching for my son. I was able to answer some of their questions, but they want to see for themselves.”
“Why didn’t you come to us earlier?” Shen Wei asked. “Or the Yashou?”
“When we left Dixing, we were at war.” It seemed to be the only explanation he thought was needed, and maybe it was. Shen Wei rarely spoke about the war, and Ye Zun refused to speak about it at all.
“The war is over,” Shen Wei said firmly. “Dixing is no longer a monarchy.”
“There are also -- rumors, that the Xingdu Bureau knows about the children, and is searching for them,” Wu Tian’en said. “Haixing’s government has made no secret of their desire to know more about Dixingren. It’s not safe for them here. There was another Dixingian -- Zhu Jiu -- who told them there was a spaceship on this mountain. He said he could sneak them on.”
The name was familiar. “But he never showed up,” Zhao Yunlan said, and Wu Tian’en nodded.
“We’ll look into it,” Ye Zun told him. “For now --” He pointed towards the porch, where they could hear exclamations of surprise. “Spaceship.”
Zhao Yunlan waved as they joined the others outside. He nodded towards the ship. “Right on schedule. This is Zhang Shi. They can take you back to Dixing.”
The ship’s lights flashed a greeting, and Da Qing dashed up the ramp as soon as it opened, no doubt hoping for first dibs on anything Zhan Shi had brought back. “Are they going to come out?” Lu Ruomei asked.
Shen Wei shook his head. “Zhang Shi isn’t inside the ship; they are the ship. Would you like to look around?”
One of them hung back, and Zhao Yunlan leaned on the railing next to her. “Are you sure you want to leave? We could find other options.”
Li Qian -- ankle fully healed, thanks to Shen Wei -- nodded. “Haixing is our home, but Dixing is our heritage. We need to go. But we might -- come back?”
“Of course. You’ll always be welcome here.”
***********
There was a mountain. A mountain that people talked about, with a reputation for mysterious lights and noises, where people appeared out of nowhere and disappeared the same way.
Local legend said the mountain was haunted. It wasn’t.
Local legend also said there was a cabin, somewhere on the mountain. And if you needed help, you’d find it, or they’d find you, because the mountain was full of strangers who all seemed to know each other.
And that one -- well, that one was true.
Author: marcicat
Rating: T
Fandom: Guardian (TV)
Summary: AU -- Zhao Yunlan is a government employee assigned to a remote ‘research station.’ Shen Wei and Ye Zun are alien ambassadors who spend as little time as possible at their official residence. Together, they help kids meet a spaceship!
Notes: Written for the Brush & Lantern’s August 2019 Challenge, “aliens, demons, superpowers.” Inspired by the idea of an “Escape to Witch Mountain’ AU.
***********
There was a mountain. A mountain people whispered about, with a reputation for mysterious lights and noises, where people appeared out of nowhere and disappeared the same way.
Local legend said the mountain was haunted. It wasn’t.
Local legend also said there was a secret government facility hidden somewhere on the mountain. That also wasn’t true. There was, however, one government employee, in a well-appointed cabin officially classified as a research station.
Zhao Yunlan had been “promoted” to the location after irritating the Xingdu Bureau one too many times. His official assignment was to record weather observations. Unofficially, he was there to offer on-site liaising with Dixing arrivals and departures. And in practice, he spent most of his time playing forest ranger for lost hikers. He had an assigned team of zero, a practical team of five, and a standing request for additional resources that somehow never made it through budget approval.
Though it was a poorly kept secret from the general population, the Xingdu Bureau was perfectly well aware of the alien presence on Haixing, and their use of Kunlun Mountain. They preferred to think that Dixing’s twin ambassadors and the Yashou Alliance that policed that presence closer to the city was keeping them informed of everything they needed to know, and if not, well -- that’s why they’d assigned Zhao Yunlan, wasn’t it?
***********
“I’m taking your jacket.”
The lump of blankets on the bed rustled. “What? Why?”
He perched on the edge of the bed and poked at the lump. Of course, that’s what finally got a response. Not the radio call, or him getting out of bed, or when he accidentally-on-purpose dropped his flashlight on the floor. He’d almost thought Ye Zun was going to pretend to sleep through the entire thing -- he was still irritated that they were on the call roster at all while they were supposed to be on vacation.
“Because Shen Wei took mine, and yours looks more like it could be a search and rescue jacket. Zhu Hong says Shen Wei’s coat makes him look like one of her students.”
“Fine,” Ye Zun muttered, pushing the blankets aside and sitting up. “Where are you going?”
“Lin Jing radioed up from the lodge. Two hikers checked in with him and said they were headed for the campground. Chu Shuzhi says they never showed up.”
Ye Zun waved his hand, and the room was filled with a soft glow. He frowned. “So send Chu Shuzhi to look for them. We’re on vacation.”
“He’s got a campsite full of kids. Guo Changcheng might push me off the mountain if we pull him off babysitting duty right now.”
The light brightened slightly, and Ye Zun tossed him his radio just as he realized he’d left it by the bed. “You’re right, and I don’t like it. More ghost hunters?”
He laughed -- it would never not be funny to him that so many people thought ghosts were easier to believe in than aliens. “I don’t think so. As far as we know they’re just a couple of directionally-challenged Haixingren. You can go back to sleep. Da Qing’s already out scouting for them.”
“As far as you know?” Ye Zun repeated.
Zhao Yunlan shrugged. “One of them stayed in the car when they checked in. The one who went inside didn’t set off Lin Jing’s detector, though. So, 50% Haixingren for sure.”
“Or Lin Jing’s detector is broken again. Besides, Haixingren can be dangerous too. I should come with you,” Ye Zun said, but he didn’t actually move to get out of bed.
“You hate night hikes. Da Qing and I can handle it. If they wanted to make trouble, they wouldn’t have bothered checking in, right?”
He hated it when people wanted to make trouble. Ghost hunters, he didn’t mind so much. But people who guessed aliens instead, and decided to show up and try to start a fight -- or people in the know who wanted to take a shot at Shen Wei and Ye Zun -- if that was the type their mystery hikers were, he wanted them off his mountain.
“Besides,” he added, tightening his laces, “I’ll call if we need you.”
Ye Zun shook his head. “Da Qing will call, you mean. You never call, even when you should. Come here.”
He sat on the side of the bed, and Ye Zun tugged him closer, until their foreheads were touching. “Be careful,” he murmured.
“I’m always careful.” He smiled as he said it, and they both knew it was a half-truth at best. He rested his hands on Ye Zun’s shoulders. “You think I don’t know you have an actual ambassadorial residence in the city? I may not be able to do all the things you can, but I would never take your safety less than seriously.”
“Everyone knows we’d rather be here,” Ye Zun said. “It’s your own safety I wish you would take more seriously.”
He leaned back and ran his fingers through Ye Zun’s hair. It was getting long again. “You and Shen Wei are the best things to ever happen to me. You think anything could stop me from coming back to you?”
Ye Zun smiled, and it took all of his willpower not to kick off his boots and climb back under the blankets. “Go, then,” Ye Zun said. “So you can come back. Make sure you tell them you’re on vacation!”
***********
He hadn’t made it more then ten minutes down the trail before Da Qing leapt out of the trees and pounced on the bright circle created by the flashlight beam. And then he quickly sat down and licked his paw as if it had been some other cat that had done such an undignified thing.
“Did you find them?” Zhao Yunlan asked.
“Did I find them?” Da Qing repeated, sounding affronted. “Of course I found them!”
He waited, following Da Qing as he stalked ahead down the trail. “They’re closer than I’d like,” Da Qing said finally. “They must have been headed straight for us.”
Meaning they weren’t anymore. “And now?”
“One of them is injured. It doesn’t look bad; probably a twisted ankle. The other one is --” His pause went on a little too long, and Zhao Yunlan started guessing.
“Bad at first aid?” he said. “Trying to build a fire? Please don’t say trying to summon a ghost.”
Da Qing snorted. “No. But she seems a lot more agitated than a lost hiker should be.”
“Maybe she’s scared of the dark.”
“I doubt it. I think she’s Dixingian.”
He frowned. “You think?” Usually Da Qing could tell -- he claimed it was cat superiority, but Shen Wei thought it might be a genetic Yashou trait.
Da Qing suddenly froze. “Wait. They’re moving again; headed this way.”
He didn’t ask if Da Qing was sure. “Can we intercept them at the trail crossing?” There was a decent-sized clearing there -- big enough for four people, easy. Or five, if things got out of hand.
“I’m a cat, not a GPS tracker,” Da Qing grumbled.
“Oh?” He feigned surprise. “Is there something even the great King of the cats can’t do?”
“Ha! I can beat them there if we pick up the pace. The only thing I don’t know is whether you can keep up!”
Their mystery hikers somehow reached the trail crossing first, but then stopped. They weren’t making any effort to be quiet, either. He looked at where he assumed Da Qing was pacing him in the trees. “Are they talking about —?”
“Being hopelessly lost on a well-marked trail?” Da Qing said. “Sounds like it. You think it’s a ploy?”
It would be an — unusual tactic for an anti-alien group, and even stranger for an actual Dixingian, but it wasn’t impossible. He shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
“Everything okay?” he called loudly, striding forward.
From behind him he heard Da Qing hiss, “Why are you like this?” He thought there might have been an ‘I blame your father’ after it, but it could have been wishful thinking.
“Do you need any help?” he called. He stepped into the clearing and was immediately blinded by a flashlight beam in his eyes.
“Stay back!”
He put his hands up and tried to look harmless. “Hello!” he said. “I’m Zhao Yunlan, I’m here to offer aid.”
The light switched to pointing at the ground, and he blinked the spots out of his eyes. “How did you find us?” one of the women said — the one holding the flashlight. The other one was sitting down, and had an ankle wrapped.
“You’re on the trail,” he said, pointing at the sign.
“And you’re just out for a night hike, is that it?”
He thought she sounded awfully suspicious for someone who had, in fact, said they were going on a night hike.
“I live on the mountain,” he said, gesturing vaguely back the way he’d come. “At the research station. The campsite radioed and said two hikers hadn’t showed up. Standard night search protocol. The mountain can be dangerous.”
He’d intended it as a justification for tracking them down. He didn’t realize she’d taken it as a threat until she stepped towards him. “We told you to leave us alone!”
He lifted his hands a little higher. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “Have we met?”
And then the clearing suddenly had two extra people in it. No, three — a man and two women. The man bent over his knees and didn’t seem to even notice him; the women stared with unnerving accuracy at the trees where Da Qing was watching. “Come out,” one of them said. “We know you’re there.” Lightning sparked between her fingers.
***********
Teleportation, electricity— they looked like Dixing powers, but anyone from Dixing should have recognized his name, or at least asked for one of the others. “You realize that is the opposite of an incentive,” Zhao Yunlan told her.
Da Qing stepped into the clearing anyway. “This isn’t necessary,” he said. “Lao Zhao makes a bad first impression, but he really is here to help.” He nodded towards the one with the wrapped ankle. “One of you is hurt. We have first aid supplies.”
“Don’t touch her!”
He needed to draw her attention, and raising his hands any further was going to look ridiculous, so he dropped them instead. “I think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding. Are you here for transport? Usually we ask people to let us know in advance, but there’s no need for threats.”
Mostly he wanted to know how they’d fooled Lin Jing’s detector. Unless one of them really was from Haixing? But why hide the size of their group? “I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Lu Ruomei,” the woman on the ground said quietly. “Maybe they can help.”
“Yes,” Zhao Yunlan said, nodding. “You should listen to your friend.”
“We don’t need any help! We can still stick to the plan.”
The one with the lightning power shook her head. “The plan doesn’t work without Zhu Jiu. We waited, but he never showed up. Either he backed out, or they found him.”
The one with the flashlight -- Lu Ruomei -- pointed it back at Zhao Yunlan. “But he said he’s from a research station. That means he works for the government. All we have to do is take these two hostage, and—“
Da Qing snorted, and everyone turned to look at him. “Sorry, sorry,” he said. “Don’t mind me. You were taking us hostage. And then?”
“You think we can’t?” The lightning girl shot a spark at him. There’s five of us, and two of you.”
Da Qing brushed invisible dust off his shoulder. “I think you overestimate how much the government wants us to stick around, and underestimate how much we’d do for you without any hostage-taking involved. But please feel free to continue; this is the most excitement we’ve had in weeks.”
Zhao Yunlan resisted the urge to groan. “Damn Cat, stop provoking them; I promised we’d be careful.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be lying,” Da Qing retorted. “Relationships are built on honest communication.”
“We have honest communication! I was being careful!”
The flashlight beam dropped as Lu Ruomei strode towards him. “I told you to stop talking!” She grabbed his wrist like she expected something to happen, and looked startled when it didn’t. Dark energy pulsed against her hand, and she jerked it back. “What was that?”
He sighed. “Now you’ve done it.” She glared, and reached for him again.
And then Ye Zun teleported between them, barefoot, wearing one of Zhao Yunlan’s t-shirts and an expression that would make even the fiercest opponent stop in their tracks.
Lu Ruomei actually took two steps backward.
In fact, everyone took a step back, except for the girl on the ground and the man still bent over his knees. He straightened up slowly, and said, “Prince Ye Zun.”
Ye Zun looked at him. Then he looked around the clearing, and his eyebrows slowly got higher and higher. “It’s been -- a very long time, since anyone called me that,” he said slowly. He took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. “Shen Wei, I need you.”
Time seemed to slow down. Shen Wei stepped through a portal at Ye Zun’s side and handed him Zhao Yunlan’s jacket.
“I’m not cold,” Ye Zun said.
“I know. I simply thought it would be comforting,” Shen Wei told him. Ye Zun said nothing, but he pulled the jacket on and zipped it up anyway.
Time sped up again. Shen Wei narrowed his eyes, and said, “Wu Tian’en. It’s been a long time.”
***********
Explanations took hours, and many, many cups of tea. By the end of it, Shen Wei was gripping his hand under the table, and Ye Zun was leaning against his other side.
Zhao Yunlan was careful not to dislodge either of them when he gestured with his cup. “You’re telling me that the lost ship -- the lost ship of legend, the one even I’ve heard of -- not only made it to Haixing and survived the crash, but the Dixingren who were on it had families? And now their kids want to see Dixing? And we’re only finding out about it now?”
“Not many survived the crash,” Wu Tian’en said tiredly. “There was no way to contact Dixing, and no way to know what the response would be if we did. We -- argued, and eventually scattered. No one thought our children would be born with Dixing abilities, so far from the source of our power.”
“And yet.” Ye Zun waved towards the porch, where the kids were either relaxing or coming up with a plan to kill them all and take the spaceship for themselves. Personally, Zhao Yunlan thought either was equally likely, but Shen Wei seemed charmed by them.
“Yes.” Wu Tian’en sighed. “They know almost nothing of Dixing; most of their parents never spoke of it. But they were drawn to each other. Hua Yuzhu found me while I was searching for my son. I was able to answer some of their questions, but they want to see for themselves.”
“Why didn’t you come to us earlier?” Shen Wei asked. “Or the Yashou?”
“When we left Dixing, we were at war.” It seemed to be the only explanation he thought was needed, and maybe it was. Shen Wei rarely spoke about the war, and Ye Zun refused to speak about it at all.
“The war is over,” Shen Wei said firmly. “Dixing is no longer a monarchy.”
“There are also -- rumors, that the Xingdu Bureau knows about the children, and is searching for them,” Wu Tian’en said. “Haixing’s government has made no secret of their desire to know more about Dixingren. It’s not safe for them here. There was another Dixingian -- Zhu Jiu -- who told them there was a spaceship on this mountain. He said he could sneak them on.”
The name was familiar. “But he never showed up,” Zhao Yunlan said, and Wu Tian’en nodded.
“We’ll look into it,” Ye Zun told him. “For now --” He pointed towards the porch, where they could hear exclamations of surprise. “Spaceship.”
Zhao Yunlan waved as they joined the others outside. He nodded towards the ship. “Right on schedule. This is Zhang Shi. They can take you back to Dixing.”
The ship’s lights flashed a greeting, and Da Qing dashed up the ramp as soon as it opened, no doubt hoping for first dibs on anything Zhan Shi had brought back. “Are they going to come out?” Lu Ruomei asked.
Shen Wei shook his head. “Zhang Shi isn’t inside the ship; they are the ship. Would you like to look around?”
One of them hung back, and Zhao Yunlan leaned on the railing next to her. “Are you sure you want to leave? We could find other options.”
Li Qian -- ankle fully healed, thanks to Shen Wei -- nodded. “Haixing is our home, but Dixing is our heritage. We need to go. But we might -- come back?”
“Of course. You’ll always be welcome here.”
***********
There was a mountain. A mountain that people talked about, with a reputation for mysterious lights and noises, where people appeared out of nowhere and disappeared the same way.
Local legend said the mountain was haunted. It wasn’t.
Local legend also said there was a cabin, somewhere on the mountain. And if you needed help, you’d find it, or they’d find you, because the mountain was full of strangers who all seemed to know each other.
And that one -- well, that one was true.
Tags: