Thread by @varnesbutworse

during the massacre at lotus pier, wei wuxian is thrown into the burial mounds. he learns/creates demonic cultivation and assumes the role of the Yiling Patriarch, bc he believes everyone he loves is dead. then he receives word that lan zhan is being married off -- to wen chao.

https://twitter.com/varnesbutworse/status/1333374337030774784

(it should go without saying that this whole thing is a story being told to sizhui by his favorite uncle, lan xichen)

wwx is surprised to hear that lan zhan is marrying anybody at all, since he was led to believe that lwj -- along with everybody else -- was dead.

"& then the day came when he realized every time lwj played that unnamed song, what he was really doing was saying 'i love you.'"

during his time in the burial mounds as The Yiling Patriarch (TYP) wwx has cultivated a powerful reputation as a bloodthirsty killer who leaves no survivors. it would be nice, he thinks, to preserve that rep in case he needs it again.

so he goes into yiling & gets an apprentice.

mxy, living on the streets after running away from his garbage family (i know: timelines. w/e roll with it), has a terribly small core. can't cultivate much at all. but he's a survivor, and he says something that surprises wwx: "oh, you're handsome?"

"come with me," wwx answers.

he teaches him what he knows. "good night, master mo. good work. sleep well. i'll most likely kill you in the morning."

he never does.

instead, once mxy has learned enough, he hands him his mask. "TYP is really more of a ~persona than a person," he says. "keep it warm for me."

meanwhile, lwj is being more or less held captive by the wens by threatening cloud recesses & his family, who will all be killed if he doesn't comply. the marriage is designed to "legitimize" the wen takeover.

before the wedding, lan zhan goes to the cold springs & disappears.

his captors are a clever man named meng yao and his two accomplices: a fierce corpse of untold strength named wen ning and an unparalleled swordsman that jc recognizes: jiang cheng.

"why?" lwj asks.

jc says, "he killed my family. when he comes to rescue you, i will kill him."

then they notice the Other Ship.

"it's not following us," says meng yao. "in these waters? at this time? inconceivable."

"you keep saying that word," says wen ning. "i do not think it means what you think it means. they are indeed being followed, in these waters. at this time.

at the top of the cliffs of instanity, meng yao orders jc to kill the masked man who is climbing up after them.

lwj, core suppressed, allows himself to be carted off by wen ning. honestly, he's kind of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ abt the kidnapping. it's not like he wanted to get married.

well. maybe ... he's had a lot of time, since wwx died, to understand all the things he wanted, that he hadn't known. he himself had not realized what he was writing, when he was writing his song.

he will name it, he decides as wen ning tosses him over his shoulder, wangxian.

no one will ever know this, because he's definitely going to die. but that's fine. lwj will know, and that's what matters. maybe when he dies, he'll become a spirit, and he'll find wwx's spirit, and he can tell him then.

maybe on the next go around, he can tell him earlier.

jc is getting impatient.

"can you hurry up. i'm on a schedule."

"oh sorry, is my death-defying stunt going TOO SLOW for you? you have to wait."

"i hate waiting," jc snaps. "i give you my word as a cultivator?"

"no good," wwx says. "i've known too many cultivators."

jc thinks about this. "i swear on the soul of my murdered sister," he says, "you will reach the top alive."

wwx, who knows that no matter what else might have happened, jc would never defile shijie's memory, replies: "throw me the rope."

if this were a real fic i'd go into detail abt how wwx learned of lwj's marriage & also that meng yao is being paid by the wens to kidnap lwj via nhs, who pretends to "befriend TYP" & not know that he is wwx, but this is not a real fic, so just -- know that's what happened.

ANYWAY. he takes the rope and climbs the cliff.

"thank you," he says, drawing a (regular) sword.

"wait until you're ready," jc replies. "i do not mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to be able to crush a golden core using only your hand?"

"...no," says wwx. "cool trick though. why do you ask?"

jc hums. "the core-melting hand killed my family," he said. "everyone. all i have left of them is this." he holds up zidian.

"a powerful spiritual tool. i've never seen its equal," wwx murmurs.

"it was my mother's."

"you must have loved her."

jc shrugs. "i loved them all," he says. "i have dedicated myself to cultivation. one day i will find the core-melting hand and say: hello. my name is sect leader jiang. you killed my family. prepare to die."

wwx blinks. "powerful speech," he says.

"why are you working for the wen, then?" he asks. "this seems counter-productive to your goal."

jc shrugs. "it pays the bills," he admits. "i will find the core-melting hand, and then i can focus on the rest of them. for now, money is money."

wwx nods. "i'm ready," he says.

they fight. jc is...DELIGHTED. "you're BETTER than me," he realizes, cracking zidian only to be parried by wwx's sword.

"thank you. then why are you smiling?"

"bc i know something you don't know."

"what's that?"

"zidian is not my primary weapon."

& he switches to a sword.

jc pushes wwx back, up crumbling old steps, his back to the ledge. "you're amazing!" wwx cries. he's so proud, honestly.

"i ought to be, after 16 years," jc replies, pleased. "your sword forms. are they -- nie?"

"some of them. there's something i should tell you."

"what?"

wwx tosses his sword & draws chenqing. "this is not my primary weapon either," he says, & begins to play.

jc swats at the swirling resentful energy, but it is everywhere, impossible to fight off.

"who ARE you?"

wwx shakes his head, and tells the truth: "no one of consequence."

the energy holds jc fast, frozen. "kill me quickly," he chokes out.

ah, but how could he? even if jc has become -- this. he's still wwx's shidi. "i'd sooner destroy a jug of emperor's smile," he says. "however, since i can't have you following me, either..."

he knocks him out.

"INCONCEIVABLE," meng yao shouts when they see wwx cresting the hill. he turns to wen ning. "you! when he arrives, kill him."

"okeydokey," says wen ning, grabbing a rock.

he chucks it, narrowly missing wwx. "i did that on purpose," he says. "i didn't have to miss."

"i believe you," says wwx. "what now?"

"we fight each other fairly," wen ning suggests. "sportsmanlike. no tricks. no weapons. skin against skin alone."

wwx is dubious.

"frankly, i think the odds are slightly in your favor at hand fighting," he muses, but he supposes it's better than having his head bashed in by a rock, so he puts down cq and charges.

he's very cute, to wen ning. he wants him to feel he's doing well, so he takes a few hits.

"you're doing so well!" he compliments, as wwx jumps on his back & chokes him. "you should be proud!"

"thank you," wwx says. his arms tighten around wen ning's throat.

oh, wen ning realizes. he's -- losing, actually? "huh," he says. "i haven't fought just 1 person in so long."

"why should that make a difference?" wwx asks, hanging on for dear life.

"you use different moves when you're fighting half a dozen cultivators," wen ning explains, slowly, breath coming with difficultly. he falls to his knees, then face-first into the grass.

wwx pats his head.

"you're a very good fierce corpse," he compliments. "i hope you don't have a headache when you wake."

he plays a quick tune on cq, just enough to ensure that wen ning's rest is peaceful. something soft. a song whose name he doesn't know, but that he's never forgotten a note of.

"oh, for shit's sake," mutters meng yao, seeing wwx charging after him. "i have to do everything myself."

"you could just kill me now," lwj suggests. "then probably he'll stop following you."

"and make huan-ge sad forever?" meng yao snaps. "please. serious suggestions only."

the thing is, meng yao's plan is like, a triple-cross plan, highly overcomplicated, involving a LOT of murder. lwj is just one small piece of it. he WOULD kill him, if he had to, but all things considered he'd rather just stash him somewhere & heroically "find" him, later.

for now, he waits. he can't overpower the man in the mask, but perhaps he can outsmart him. that's his whole thing.

wwx sits down across from him. lwj stays jade-still beside him.

"a battle of wits," meng yao proposes.

"........sure," wwx agrees, pulling out a vial of poison.

"this is iocane powder. it's odorless, tasteless, deadly, & dissolves instantly in liquid." he puts poisons one goblet behind his back. "the battle of wits has begun. it ends when you decide & we both drink, find out who is right...& who is dead."

"but that's easy," crows mgy.

"all i have to do is divine from what i know of you: are you the kind that would poison his own goblet, or his enemies? a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. i am not a great fool."

"mn," huffs lwj from beside him, & is ignored.

"you must have known i was not a great fool. so i can clearly not take the wine in front of me."

"is that your decision?"

"not remotely! because iocane powder comes from yiling, which everyone knows is peopled by criminals."

"entirely," wwx agrees.

"you'd know i would not trust you, so i can clearly not choose the wine in front of you."

"you have a dizzying intellect," says wwx.

"you've given everything away!" cries meng yao. "i know where the poison is!"

"then drink," wwx commands, & they do.

meng yao laughs and laughs. "you fell victim to one of the classic blunders! the most famous is 'never get involved in a land war in asia' but only slightly less well-known is 'never go against a bastard when LEGITIMACY is on the line!!!'

he laughs hysterically. and then dies.

"and to think, all that time your cup was poisoned," lwj muses.

wwx studies his face. his still-perfect face. just as he remembered. cold, remote, annoyed, beautiful. "they were both poisoned," wwx confesses. "iocane powder can't kill me because i have no golden core."

lwj allows himself to be pulled to his feet. he is -- smiling. wwx is pretty sure he is smiling. he keeps smiling as his blindfold is removed, and with perfect patience allows wwx to untie his hands.

"i know who you are," lwj says, voice soft.

"the yiling patriarch," says wwx.

lwj shakes his head. "no," he murmurs. "i /know/ who you /are/."

he doesn't, of course. he couldn't. wwx tsks. "a bloodthirsty demon. a wicked sorcerer. a slaughterer."

"no," says lwj. "you're a pest. an inventor. a good man."

"the yiling patriarch never takes prisoners."

for someone who's been kidnapped for the second time in one day, he's remarkably calm. his hands are tight around wwx's wrists. "the yiling patriarch is just another name given to you that you didn't ask for," he says, and taps the silver mask. "and can be taken just as quickly."

oh, wwx thinks.

"you mock my pain," he murmurs, surprised. lwj has never been unkind. unyielding yes, but never unkind.

lwj's voice is tender as he pushes the mask off wwx's face. "life /is/ pain, wei ying," he murmurs, gentle. "anyone who says different is selling something."

...........this is so long are threadfics supposed to be this long

"how did you recognize me?" wwx asks.

"think for yourself," says lwj.

(somewhere down below, wen ning is beginning to wake. he thinks he remembers a song. a lullaby. sad, and soft, and full of yearning. he doesn't know its name.)

"my memory is bad."

lwj shakes his head. "what did you mean, you don't have a core?" he asks, reaching out, his hand low on wwx's stomach. he feels a scar. "wei ying. tell me."

wwx laughs, gravelly. "ah, lan zhan, it was years ago," he dismisses. "it will only upset you."

"nothing you say can upset me," lwj promises. "without a core, how can you cultivate?"

wwx hesitates. "well. i died," he murmurs. lwj looks up sharply. "only a bit. briefly. in the burial mounds. the energy there, it ... ate me alive. but. it liked the flavor of my resentment."

"i died well," he muses. "if that pleases you. i asked them only to allow me one last thing. the spirits asked me what was so important. there's a song, i replied. a song whose name i do not know. i asked if i could play it for them, and they said yes."

lwj looks down.

"what was it called?" he asks.

wwx smiles. "i don't know," he answers. but it gave them pause. they asked where i learned it. i told them of a boy, of surpassing intelligence & honor. i told them i would play it every day, if they would let me live, and help me find him again."

he falls quiet. "and then?" lwj prompts.

"AND THEN I HEARD YOU WERE GETTING /MARRIED/ TO /WEN CHAO/," wwx yells. "WHAT THE FUCK IS /THAT/ ABOUT!!!!!"

(i have to do ... my actual job for a bit sorry team also once again this is too long, i recognize this is too long)

lwj winces; he says, "you were gone for 16 years."

what he means is: a lot has changed. what he means is: they have me by the throat. what he means is: i loved you, and you died.

you /died/.

i lived in a world where you /died/, and i didn't. what good choices where there?

wwx huffs a bitter laugh. he thinks of 16 years in the burial mounds. surrounded by the dead, begging him to love them. begging him to play for them, over and over, the song he could not name. his family gone, his future gone, his core gone, his love gone. only resentment left.

"come back with me," says lwj. "to qishan."

"for what?" wwx snaps. "to be held prisoner? to be a ... royal pet? to watch you--to watch you--"

"you /left/!" lwj finally shouts, hand on bichen. "i keep having to watch you /leave/!"

he takes a step forward & wwx skitters back --

and misses a step, ground disappearing beneath him. he goes tumbling down the side of the mountain, voice carrying: "i'm-so-rry-zhi-jiiiiiiiiiii~"

"shit," says lan zhan, and flings himself down after.

the good news is: they don't die. the good news is: it feels...vERY bad.

on a neighboring mountain ridge, wen chao hops down off his sword & says to wen zhuliu, "they've disappeared! he must have known we were closing in. they're headed dead into the fire swamp."

wwx scrambles over to where lwj is carefully not moving. he gathers him up in his arms, smoothing out where his forehead ribbon has gone askew. "lan zhan!" he cries. "can you move at all?"

"mn," says lwj. "but you'll have to let go of me first."

wwx laughs, sheepish. "right."

before he can move, lwj's hand shoots up to hold him in place. he's staring at him with an intensity that makes wwx break his gaze & pick nonexistent grass off his robes. "did you mean it?" lwj asks. "'zhiji'? did you mean it?"

"in all my lives so far," says wwx.

and lwj thinks, /i could kiss him now. now is when i could kiss him./

but zhiji is a hard word. there's so much in it. there's so much it could but doesn't have to be. lwj loves wei ying. he is in love with him. this does not mean wwx is in love with him back.

"lan zhan," wwx begins, which is when the thunder of wen-controlled fierce corpses stampeding toward them begins to roll, and they both scramble to their feet and into the fire swamp.

"how do you cultivate?" lwj asks again, their hands tangled as they navigate the forest.

"not all the rumors about TYP are false," wwx tells him. he tightens his grip. "all energy can be harnessed, not just your own. there is a lot of resentment, in the burial mounds."

"the ghost path," lwj deduces, frowning.

"that's a very sexy name for it," agrees wwx.

"it isn't good for you," says lwj. "it's bad for your body."

wwx gestures at himself. he's very skinny. he's been living alone for 16 years. "i mean," he says. "it can't get that much worse. i don't have a core to corrupt."

lwj considers. before, he'd have argued. he'd have run down the list of rules that said why it was wrong to walk the ghost path.

but he has thought wwx was dead for 16 years. he has lived a long time believing that the worst already happened.

he shrugs. "i trust you," he says.

wwx blinks at him. "you do?" he asks. "even though i'm like this?"

"you're wei ying," replies lwj, unruffled. "i will never doubt again."

"there will never be a need," wwx promises, and squeezes his hand. lwj squeezes back.

which is when they're both knocked over by an ROUS.

okay it turns out i have to rewatch this part of the movie in order to fic it so that's it for the night enjoy this tiny cliffhanger xoxo gossip girl

the ROUS bites down on WWX's shoulder, hard. he blasts it off with a talisman, right into an exploding fire column. lwj stabs it with bichen, several times; with his core locked, he can't do much more. but it's enough.

he runs to wwx's side, hand overing over his wound.

"i can't heal you," he confesses. without a core, wwx's wounds won't heal; with his locked, lwj is of no use. he helps wwx to his feet. "they sealed my core."

wwx pauses. "the two strongest cultivators of our generation, powerless. i am often surprised by life's little quirks."

"not powerless," lwj scolds him, shaking his head, and nods at chenqing.

"ah." wwx hesitates, toying with the flute. he feels -- worried. knowing about it is one thing, but for lwj to see him using resentful energy is another. perhaps he'll change his mind.

lwj's mouth quirks.

"wei ying," he says, meaning there is nothing he could do that would make lwj leave. that he could raise all the corpses in the world and lwj would march with them. that he could stay in the fire swamp forever and lwj would live there, too.

wwx nods. lets out a breath. lifts cq.

he plays, & the fire swamp, curtained as heavily with resentful energy as the burial mounds, sways. ROUSes lay down sweetly at their feet. fire columns settle. sand pits pull closed. they walk out of the forest, a song wwx does not know is called 'wangxian' echoing around them.

"that wasn't so bad, was it?" lwj asks when they're clear of the trees, and wwx lowers cq.

wwx laughs, looking up at lwj with sparkling, delighted eyes. how resentful could it be, lwj wonders, if it made wwx feel like this? how could it be harmful if it loved him so well?

"wei ying," he says, just that, and suddenly wwx's expression gets serious, his eyes dark; wwx steps in, angles his face up --

"SURRENDER," commands wen chao, and behind him, wen zhuliu bows low.

"you mean you wish to surrender to me? very well, i accept," wwx says, withdrawing from lwj and raising his flute again.

"don't be a fool," wen chao sneers. "i have an army. you have a flute."

"it's a very nice flute," says wwx.

"wei ying," murmurs lwj, and his eyes flick up.

they're surrounded, completely. fierce corpses in the hundreds. he doesn't know how wen chao is controlling them, but he must be, because they are standing at attention. not even wwx could overpower them all.

this is to say nothing of the thirty or so cultivators hovering above.

lwj cannot help with a locked core. perhaps they could fight, but his core is /locked/. bichen is merely a sword. they won't die immediately, if it comes to it, but what is certain is that they WILL die.

that wwx will die. again. lwj will have to live without him /again./

"we will live quite happily in the fire swamp," wwx is saying. "it's free real estate."

"SURRENDER," shouts wen chao, "DEATH FIRST, wwx shouts back, & lwj, who cannot bear another world without wwx in it, who barely survived the first one, says quietly, "vow not to hurt him."

"what was that?" wen chao asks.

"what was that?" asks wwx.

"if we surrender, and i return with you, vow on the honor of your clan not to hurt this man."

wc studies him carefully. wwx says, "honor? of his CLAN? HIS clan? his???"

"vow it," lwj demands, and wc inclines his head.

lwj is not stupid. he knows who wen chao is. he knows the risk he's taking. but it is the possibility of death versus the certainty of one. wwx has a much better chance of escape if he is not worried about a powerless lwj. if he is not surrounded by a hundred puppet corpses.

he turns to wwx, who is looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

"i thought you were dead once, and it almost destroyed me," lwj says, voice quiet, just for him. "i could not bear it if you died again. not when i could save you."

"lan zhan," wwx begins.

"wangxian," lwj interrupts as wen chao sweeps him up onto his sword. "that is the name of the song you played. wangxian."

and then he's gone.

wen zhuliu and wwx watch them go. the corpses lay down.

"come, master wei," says wz. "let us get you somewhere safe."

"lies do not become you, master wen," wwx says, studying him carefully & trying to place him. then, all at once, he does. "the core melting hand," he deduces.

wz frowns. "...yes, why?" he asks.

"someone was looking for you," says wwx, right before they knock him out.

he awakes to someone dressing the wound on his shoulder. she is small, with completely white eyes.

"where am i?"

she startles a bit, to find him awake, then sighs. "the pit of despair," she informs him matter-of-factly. "don't even think of trying to escape."

"only me, xue yang, & wen chao know how to get in and out." she leans in. "between us, i feel bad about this, but at the end of the day it's you or me, you know?"

"i understand completely," wwx assures her. "so it's to be torture?" she nods. "i can cope with torture."

she shakes her head.

"you don't believe me?"

"they say you survived the burial mounds, so you're very brave. but nobody withstands the machine."

"...ominous," says wwx, and steels himself.

("the king died that very night, and before the following dawn, lwj & wc were married. at noon, he met his subjects again, this time as -- "

"hold it, hold it, uncle xichen, you read that wrong. he doesn't marry wen chao, he marries wwx! i'm sure of it! after everything...

...that they went through, if they don't get married, it wouldn't be fair!"

"who says life is fair? where's that written? life isn't always fair."

"i'm TELLING you, you're MESSING UP THE STORY! get it RIGHT."

"do you want me to go on with this? then no more interruptions.")

the king died that very night, and before the following dawn, lwj & wc were married. at noon, he met his subjects again, this time as a member of the wen.

"my father's last words were 'love him as i have loved him, and there will be joy.' i present to you: wen zhan."

(i know it doesn't really work like that vis-a-vis last names but trying to figure out what his title would be was tricky so just roll with it)

"BOOOOOOOO! BOOOO! BOO!" yells a dirty-looking cultivator with a cloth died over his bloody eyes. in his hand is a glowing bag. it has a soul in it.

"why do you do this?" lwj asks, puzzled.

"because you had LOVE IN YOUR HANDS & you gAVE IT UP," song lan yells, shaking the bag.

"they'd have killed him if i didn't," lwj points out. "i had no choice."

"YOUR TRUE LOVE LIVES AND YOU MARRY ANOTHER," shouts song lan. "true love SAVED you in the fire swamp, and you treated it like garbage! that's what you are: the king of filth! the king of refuse!"

lwj wakes with a start.

("SEE! didn't i tell you he'd never marry that rotten wen chao?"

"yes. you're very smart.")

he goes to wen chao. "it comes to this: i love wei wuxian," he announces.

"neat," says wen chao.

"more to your interest, i know where one of the shards is."

wen chao stands. "where?"

lwj shakes his head. "i will tell you when you have returned wei wuxian to me," he says flatly. "not a moment before."

this is problematic for wen chao, who happens to know that wwx is in the pit of despair having what he assumes is a very bad time.

"we already know where the 4 shards are. north, south, east, west," wen chao says, narrowing his eyes. "eventually we will find them."

"yes, you may find those four," lwj agrees.

".../those/ four?"

"mn."

"what do you mean?"

"what i said."

wen chao stomps his foot.

"i don't like your tone," he snaps.

"that is a problem you must deal with on your own time," lwj answers.

"you're saying there is a fifth shard?"

lwj, who has had the shard from the lan caves literally this whole time, &whose brother has written to him from his hiding place...

...abt rumors of a fifth shard, hidden in the xuanyu's cave, and who is a real nerd about reading, has pieced together some things that wwx did not tell him, about his time in the burial mounds. about where his power comes from.

"five is indeed the number after four," he notes.

wen chao strikes him. lwj doesn't move, though without his core it hurts enormously. he waits, unblinkingly, until wen chao snarls, "fine. i will send word to all our district offices to return him. but..." his lips curl up in a terrible smile. "are you sure he still wants you?"

"after all, it was YOU who did the leaving," he muses. "not to mention TYP is not known to be forgiving."

"you're not qualified to talk about him," lwj answers flatly. "if he is not here by the wedding, i will kill myself & you will never learn the location of the 5th shard."

(i forgot how metal buttercup is in the film, which is funny bc she's like, twice as metal in the novel, which i also always forget)

in the pit of despair, wwx is indeed, having a pretty bad time.

"beautiful, isn't it?" xue yang asks, glittering up at the machine and bouncing a little on his feet. "i'm sure you've discovered my deep and abiding interest in pain."

"i have noticed it," wwx agrees.

"i want you to be honest with me about how it makes you feel," xue yang tells him sternly, wagging a finger. "this being our first try, i'll use the lowest setting."

and he cranks the machine to 'one.'

the night before the wedding, wen chao calls wang lingjiao to him. "killers from --" he checks his notes, "lanling are planning to murder lwj on our wedding night and frame me for it."

"my district offices have reported no such news," wlj tells him.

"and yet they are," says wc.

"don't you want to kill him, so that you can marry me?" wlj asks, pouting.

"of course i do," soothes wc. "but he can't die by MURDER, it'll LOOK bad. he has to die of, say, an illness that takes a very long time and cannot be cured. like his mother did."

lwj nods, tapping her chin. "of course. i suppose i could just go into the forest and kill everybody."

wc pats her head fondly, giving her a little kiss and a boop on the nose. "good girl," he coos, and pulls her into his lap.

the day of the wedding, wlj's brute squad has their hands full emptying the forest. there is one particular cultivator who was giving them problems.

he is very drunk. he keeps shouting, "i AM WAITING! FOR! MY FRIEND," and stumbling over, cracking a powerful spiritual whip.

"i am your friend," says wen ning, hauling him up, but gently. jc blinks blearily at him, then smiles, woozy.

"it's you," he coos.

"hello!!" cries wen ning, delighted. "you don't look so good." jc huffs. "you don't smell so good, either."

"i feel fine," insists jc, & faints.

wen ning took great care in reviving jc.

"THAT'S ENOUGH," jc yells. "where is wen zhuliu now? so i may kill him."

wen ning shrugs. "he's with wen chao, in the palace. but the palace gate is guarded by 30 corpses."

jc kicks a bucket. "how many could you handle?"

"i don't think more than 10," admits wen ning.

"leaving 20. at my best i could never defeat that many."

wen ning looks down. "if master wei was here--"

jc shuts him up with a glance. "he's not," he snaps. "no amount of missing him will fix it. dead people stay dead." pause. "present company excluded."

"thank you," says wn.

they both miss jc's brother. wen ning had latched onto him like a baby bird at cloud recesses, before everything went to shit, and jc has always -- he'd rather die than say it to his brother's face, but he always looked up to him.

"i need a necromancer," he grouses.

he sits up.

"the man in the mask," he breathes. "he bested me with resentful energy. let's go."

wen ning follows after him, asking, "where?"

"to find the yiling patriarch! there will be blood tonight!"

at the palace, lwj is dressed in his wedding robes. wc circles him for inspection. "guess he doesn't love you enough to come," he sneers.

"if he hasn't come, then you haven't sent for him," lwj answers, calm.

"tell me where the shard is."

"no."

"tell me, or i swear i'll -- "

"eliminate my clan? destroy our library? seal my core? murder my uncle? marry me?"

wc kicks over a stack of books. "you won't be so arrogant after the wedding," he snarls. "when i'm legitimized and you're wasting away in a prison."

"is that not what i'm already doing?"

wc stomps over to his desk. "you're an arrogant fool," he snaps.

"arrogance is forbidden," says lwj. "you are nothing but a coward with a heart full of fear."

"i would not say such lies, if i were you," wc warns him, voice low.

"lying is forbidden," replies lwj.

wc snaps his fingers and lwj is dragged away, tossed into his room. wc stomps from the palace to the pit of despair, stomping his way down the stairs to where wwx is still tied to the table.

"excess noise is forbidden in cloud recesses," wwx croaks, in greeting.

it is all xue yang has been able to get from him: perfect recitation of the rules. they have made it through two thousand and eleven of them.

"he loves you," wc hisses, "and you might have been truly happy. and so i think no man in a century will suffer as greatly as you."

he cranks the machine to 50.

"oh, this is amazing stuff!" croons xue yang, grabbing a quill as wwx's screams echo through the pit of despair, and the forest around it, and the kingdom around it, and the world around it.

in town, jc stops. "a-ning, do you hear? that is the sound of ultimate suffering."

"my heart made that sound when the core-melting hand killed my family. the yiling patriarch makes it now."

wen ning nods, his eyes sad. "his true love marries another tonight. who else has the cause for ultimate suffering?"

"that, or they're REALLY torturing him," agrees jc.

they follow the sound to the woods, where a small girl with white eyes is pushing a wagon.

"where is the yiling patriarch?" jc asks, sandu's tip at her throat.

she blinks at him. "are you threatening me?" she asks. "i'm blind, and you're THREATENING me? that's so rude."

wen ning waffles, gently placing a hand on jc's wrist. "maybe the kind mistress is willing to show us where the yiling patriarch is," he suggests. "because we need him really badly, and she seems like a kind young mistress."

"i do NOT seem NICE," protests the girl, horrified.

"then maybe the kind mistress will do it because if she doesn't i'll cut her hands off and then how will she push her wagon?" jc snaps.

she studies them. jc is ... PRETTY sure she isn't blind.

eventually, she sighs. "i don't know who the yiling patriarch is," she says, "but there's a man in that tree being tortured to death." she gestures at a nearby tree, larger than the others.

"great!" cries wen ning.

"not for him," says the girl.

she presses one of the knobs on the tree trunk. a door opens.

"you didn't hear it from me," she commands. "quick, knock me out so it looks like you attacked me."

they hesitate.

"you JUST had your sword at my throat," she reminds jc. "what, a bump on the head is too far?"

they look at one another; jc shrugs. wen ning winces and mumbles, "sorry, young mistress, and thank you," before bopping her quickly on the head. he catches her when her knees buckle and lays her gentle on the forest floor.

but, in the pit of despair, wwx is already dead.

("uncle, uncle, wait. what did wen ning mean 'dead'? wwx is only faking, right?"

"do you want me to read this, or not?"

"who gets wen chao?"

"i don't understand."

"WHO KILLS WEN CHAO. AT THE END. SOMEBODY HAS TO."

"nobody kills him. he lives.")

("you mean he WINS?! JESUS, what did you read me this thing for?!"

"...you've been very sick & you're taking this story very seriously. maybe we should stop."

"no! i'm okay. sit down. i'm all right."

"hm...all right. let's see. where we we? oh right. in the pit of despair.")

jc straightens. "a-ning, bring the body."

"the body? what are we going to do?"

jc's father is dead. his mother is dead. his sister is dead. his brother is dead. but the jiangs are not dead, because jc is a jiang, and jc remembers.

he answers, "attempt the impossible."

the knocking is incessant, and frantic. it's been a long time since anyone has knocked frantically or incessantly on her door.

she shuffles out of her office, grumbling the whole time. "what, WHAT?" she grouses, flinging the door open.

"are you the one known as qiji qing?"

(disclaimer: i don't know chinese, i used google translate, i am sure this is deeply imperfect but 'miracle qing' was a garbage phrase, so please forgive me and let's all agree to pretend it works. OR feel free to reply with a better fit and we'll go with that!)

they stare at each other.

"wait," jc says. "wait -- WEN QING?"

"i was, before they killed my brother and cast me out," wen qing snaps, recovering quickly. "thanks so much for the reminder. next time just cut my arm off and put lemon juice on it. i'm closed."

she goes to slam the door, but jc catches it. "leave, or i'll call the brute squad," wen qing warns him.

"i'm on the brute squad," says wen ning, very quietly, emerging from the corner of the house.

they look at one another for a very, very long time.

"a-jie," wen ning murmurs eventually, "i missed you. i really really missed you all this time," and bursts into tears.

wen qing finishes opening the door and flings herself into wen ning's arms. it's difficult for him to hold both her and wwx, but he manages.

"a-ning," she cries, soothing his hair back, taking his face in her hands. "you're alive. how are you alive? they killed you. i know they killed you. i saw them."

"someone brought me back," wen ning says. "i don't know who. they left me outside yiling, and -- "

"yiling?"

jc is frowning. "you didn't tell me it was yiling."

"it was," wen ning confirms. "and when i woke up, i was in a cave, next to a pool of blood. a man in a ... oh."

all three of them look down to where wwx's limp body is still in wen ning's arms. the mask is coming loose.

wen qing asks, perfectly calmly, "is this the yiling patriarch?"

"yeah," jc admits.

"and you're telling me he saved my brother's life?"

"strictly speaking, he brought your brother back as a fierce corpse," says jc. "but yes."

"& now he's dead?"

they nod.

"i'll take a look."

they lay him out on her operating table. she hums thoughtfully, feeling down his arms, tracing his meridians. "have you taken the mask off?" she asks. "do you know who he is?"

"he's the yiling patriarch," says jc. "what more is there to know?"

wen qing pinches her nose.

"it feels disrespectful to remove it," wen ning mumbles. "he seems to like to keep it on."

she sighs. "this man has no golden core," she says. she should know; she's the one that took it out. she would know this body if it were disfigured beyond all recognition.

jc squawks. "what?!" he cries. "but -- his sword forms!"

"it's almost like he had one and then lost it," wen qing says, very deadpan.

"like what happened to me," jc deduces. "wei wuxian's grandmaster healed me."

wen qing hesitates. ".....right," she says. "yes."

"um," says wen ning.

"yes, that's what happened," wen qing says again, more firmly, giving wen ning a silencing look.

jc wants to tear at his hair, but instead leans in close. "can you heal him?" he asks. "can you bring him back if he has no core?"

wen qing makes a so-so gesture with her hand. "it depends," she tells them frankly, "on whether or not he wants to live."

she digs through her things. "it so happens that he is only mostly dead. there's a big difference between mostly and all dead. please, open his mouth."

"mostly dead," she explains, gesturing at wen ning, "is slightly alive. all dead -- well. with all dead, there's usually only one thing you can do."

"what's that?"

"go through his clothes and look for loose change."

wen ning frowns at her. "a-jie," he scolds.

"money is money," wen qing tells him. she pumps wwx's mouth a few times, then leans in. "HEY," she calls. "HELLO IN THERE. WHAT HAVE YOU GOT HERE THAT'S WORTH LIVING FOR?"

she presses down on his chest, slow.

wwx moans out, "tooooooooo ooooooooooooof."

wen ning perks up. "true love!" he cries, delighted. "did you hear that, he said true love!"

"hm," says wen qing. she runs her hands down his arms again. nothing has changed. there's very little of him left. "that's all?"

"that's ALL?" repeats jc. "what else is there?"

"true love is very nice," wen qing agrees. "but one person, no matter how much you cherish them, is not enough to bring you back from being mostly dead. you cannot hang your whole life on one person's shoulders. it is too heavy. it will cut you both."

quietly, from behind them, a voice says, "true love does not have to refer to just one person."

all three heads turn.

"go back inside, witch," wen qing sighs, and the hooded person answers with a tinkling laugh, "i'm not a witch, i'm your wife."

she raises her head.

"a-li," jc breathes.

yanli smiles at him, eyes glittering. "a-cheng," she answers, and holds open her arms. he falls into them, tears wetting her shoulders.

"you're alive," he gasps. "how -- how are you -- i thought they -- "

"they flung me into the river, and i mostly drowned," yanli admits, before smiling again. "which means i was slightly un-drowned when a-qing found me. you know my cultivation has never been strong. i was bed-bound, and very ill, for a long time. i thought you were dead, too."

she laughs a sob, peppering jc's face with kisses. "a-cheng. a-cheng. look at you."

wen qing huffs. "now we're even," she tells jc. "we've traded not-dead siblings."

"apparently we ARE siblings," jc chokes out. "you MARRIED her?"

yanli and wen qing share a glance.

"it's a story for another time," yanli says.* she turns to the body on the table. when she thought everyone was dead, wen qing told yanli of the core transfer, about what wwx did to save jc. "is this him? a-qing? is it?"

wq bows her head. "yes," she says.

(*varnes also says)

"he said true love," yanli murmurs.

"it's not enough," says wen qing. "do you think i didn't try? with a-ning, when he died, before they took him away, do you think i didn't -- "

"i love him," yanli interrupts. "a-cheng loves him. a-ning loves him. you love him."

"i barely even like him," wen qing snorts.

"liar," says yanli. "liar, liar, liar."

jc gestures at TYP. "this guy?" he repeats. "everybody loves THIS guy?"

"of course we do," yanli says, and calmly removes his mask. "he's our brother."

"this is so many sibling reunions in one day," jc says faintly, collapsing back into wen ning's arms.

"true love does not mean /only love/," yanli goes on, voice very firm. "a-qing. i know how badly it hurt when you could not revive wen ning. but it is different this time. we're all here. all of us are enough."

wen qing bites her lip. she studies wwx.

"LISTEN UP, WEI YING," she shouts at him. "YOUR SISTER IS ALIVE. YOUR BROTHER IS ALIVE. WEN NING IS SAFE. I AM SAFE." she pauses, glances at yanli, who has taken one of wwx's hands, & jc, who has taken the other. "LAN WANGJI IS ALIVE."

"so?" hisses jc.

"shut up! i'm working!"

she shoves needles into wwx's head, neck, and shoulders, then removes them just as quickly. into his mouth she places a large pill, manually chewing for him until it disappears down his throat.

"how long do we have to wait until we know if the miracle works?" asks wen ning.

"your guess is as good as mine," replies wen qing, which is when WWX yells, "i'll beat you at your part. i'll take you both together!"

"i guess not very long," says yanli, and at her voice, wwx falls abruptly silent. his eyes dart around, looking, but he can't move. "a-xian."

"shijie?" he croaks, voice shaking. "are you -- am i dead? why won't my arms move?"

"you've been mostly dead all day," supplies wen ning helpfully. "everyone is alive! me and my a-jie and YOUR a-jie and jiang cheng."

this is a lot to take in all at once.

"wen qing made you a pill to bring you back," jc says. his voice is gravel. "why didn't you tell me you were you when we were fighting? prick."

he squeezes wwx's hand, lower lip trembling.

"it felt like the wrong time," wwx admits. yanli kisses his forehead. "what's going on?"

"i will explain," wen qing begins, then pauses. "no. it's too much. i will sum up: everyone thought everyone else was dead, but nobody was dead, though we've all been very unwell. your lan wangji is marrying wen chao in a little less than half an hour."

"true love brought you back," sniffs wen ning.

wwx blinks. "my love for lan zhan brought me back?"

"ohhhh, i get why you said it now," jc says to wen qing, who ignores him.

"your love for all of us," yanli corrects. "and our love for you. but yes. also lan wangji."

"great!" chirps wwx, who is taking this all very well for a paralyzed man who has just discovered he's lived alone in torment for 16 years for absolutely no reason at all. "so all we have to do is break into the palace, steal lan zhan, kill wen chao, and take over qishan."

"it doesn't leave much room for dilly-dallying," wen qing agrees.

"you just moved your finger!" cries wen ning. "that's wonderful!"

"thank you, a-ning," says wwx, very fondly. "so. what are our liabilities?"

"there's only one gate. it is guarded by 30 corpses."

"and our assets?"

jc thinks. "your necromancy. a-ning's strength. my zidian."

"impossible," grumps wwx.

"yes," jc agrees. "thankfully, you're a jiang. we love the impossible."

wwx doesn't cry, but only because his tear ducts aren't working yet.

"if i had time to PLAN, maybe i could come up with something," wwx groans, shaking his head.

wen ning claps. "you just shook your head! doesn't that make you happy?"

wwx lolls his head. "your support is very meaningful to me, a-ning," he says. "if only we had a cart."

"well, there's the cart that the blind girl had," jc says, consideringly.

"it's not far," agrees wen ning.

"...right," says wwx. "well, we'd still need a fireproof cloak."

yanli shrugs the cloak off her shoulders. "this is fireproof," she offers, holding it out.

a light has begun to grow in wwx's eyes. "all right. come on, help me up. i have an idea. i'll need a sword, eventually."

"why? you can barely lift your arms," jc snaps.

"well, that's hardly common knowledge, is it?" wwx points out. "now, there may be problems inside."

jc snorts. "i'll say. how do i find wen zhuliu? once i do, how do i find you again? once i find you again, how do we overthrow wen chao?"

"don't pester him," wen ning scolds, gathering wwx into his arms and lifting him. "he's had a long day."

"HE'S had a long day?!" jc shouts. "this asshole -- "

"a-cheng," interrupts yanli. "perhaps we can all sit down, after, and discuss where we've all been, and why we didn't contact each other. i'll make soup, all right? but we are on a bit of a tight timeline."

when they get to the gate, they put wen ning on the card, in yanli's cloak. jc pushes it, wwx on his back.

"I AM THE YILING PATRIACH," wen ning announces. "I AM HERE. YOU ARE HERE. BUT SOON YOU WILL /NOT/ BE HERE. THE YILING PATRIARCH TAKES NO SURVIVORS."

[guqin playing]

"mawwiage," says the wedding officiant to lwj and wen chao, "is what bwings us togevah today. maqiage, that bwessed awaingement, that dweam wivin a dweam--"

"now?" hisses jc.

"not yet," replies wwx.

they stumble forward a few steps.

"NOW?"

"light him."

wen ning goes up in flames.

"wuv, twoo wuv, will fowwow you forevah," says the officiant.

["THE YILING PATRIARCH IS HERE FOR YOUR SOULS."]

"skip to the end," grits out wen chao.

"wei ying," says lan wangji.

"your wei ying is dead. i killed him myself!"

"lying is forbidden," lan wangji replies again.

at the gate, jc, wwx, and wen ning corner wlj. "give us the gate key," wwx demands.

"i have no gate key," she responds.

jc says, "a-ning, tear her arms off."

"oh," she says, "you mean this gate key?"

"--clare you man and husband."

lwj is escorted to the bedroom suite. he goes quietly. this is no worse to him than any other day has been. lwj's life has been his bargaining chip: while he is alive, he can keep wwx safe by refusing to reveal the shards until he is safe.

if it is true that wei ying is dead, then he will simply kill himself and take the knowledge of the shards' locations with him. perhaps he will meet wei ying again in the next incarnation cycle. perhaps as spirits. perhaps he should write down wangxian, for someone else to play.

wen zhuliu corners jc, wn, and wwx in the palace hallway. "kill them," he demands.

"six fingers," notes jc, in a tone of voice that is very calm, for him. "the core-melting hand."

"yes," wen zhuliu agrees, inclining his head.

wwx & jc look at each other. "go get em," wwx says.

"hello," says jc. "my name is jiang cheng of the yungmengjiang. you killed my family. prepare to die."

wen zhuliu straightens. "young master," he greets politely, and the fight begins.

down hallways. through the banquet hall. across a turret. down into the throne room, where wen zhuliu turns, gets lucky, & manages to stab a sword through jc's stomach.

"i remember you," he murmurs. "i took your core. without one, this wound will not heal. but you fought well."

in the bedchamber, lwj removes his crown. with his core locked, it will be quite easy to kill himself; he won't heal from any wound he inflicts. perhaps it is for the best, anyway: wth lwj, no one alive knows of the shard locations.

he brings the knife to his own throat.

"there is a shortage of perfect faces in the world," scolds wwx from the bed. "it would be a pity to damage yours."

lwj whirls around. "wei ying," he says, wobbling on the second syllable, and is immediately over at the bed. "i thought -- "

"i died again," wwx admits. "mostly."

"only mostly?" asks lwj, running his hands down wwx's face, checking for wounds. his touch is soft. gentle. he's always so gentle, with wwx.

"true love brought me back," wwx tells him. he's smiling. his eyes are two perfect wrinkles. "lan zhan. i like you. i love you."

lwj blinks.

"i want you," wwx goes on. "it can't be anybody, except you. not for the rest of however many lives i get."

lwj says nothing, still.

wwx frowns. "did you hear me?" he asks, and all the lights in the room go out.

lwj gathers wwx into his arms, gripping so tightly that if wwx had any feeling at all in his extremities, he'd be in quite a lot of pain. but it's fine. he can't hug back, but he lodges his face into the curve of lwj's shoulder and tries to burrow in.

lwj is saying something--

"like you. love you. want you. can't be anybody, except you, for the rest of my life. all my lives."

"each one," says wwx. "every life means every life."

"every life," agrees lwj, dizzily, and then they are kissing, and in the dark of the room the world narrows to just this.

jc pulls the sword out. he climbs, slowly, to his feet. he feels like he can taste his blood, like it's in his throat.

"good heavens, are you still trying to win?" wen zhuliu asks, surprised. he stabs out again; jc parries with zidian and it stabs his shoulder.

"hello," he says. "my name is jiang cheng if the yunmengjiang. you killed my family. prepare to die."

he lurches forward, zidian cracking. wen zhuliu parries. he doesn't stop. "hello. my name is jiang cheng if the yunmengjiang. you killed my family. prepare to die."

he backs wz up against the throne. "hello. my name is jiang cheng if the yunmengjiang. you killed my family. prepare to die."

"wait," wen zhuliu manages. "your wounds -- without a core, how -- ?"

but jiang cheng /has/ a core. it was given to him by somebody that loved him.

"impossible," wen zhuliu cries.

"hello," answers jc. "my name is jiang cheng of the yunmeng jiang. we always attempt the impossible. prepare to die."

and with that, he releases every ounce of zidian's spiritual power, and wen zhuliu slumps to the floor, dead.

they break apart. "i'm sorry," lwj says. "wei ying. i -- "

"between us, there is no need for sorry," wwx interrupts.

lwj smiles. "thank you, then."

"no need for that either."

"what /is/ there need for?"

"a smaller audience," wwx decides, looking over lwj's shoulder.

wen chao draws his sword. "to the death!" he growls, stepping forward.

"no," wwx replies. "to the pain."

this makes wen chao pause. "...i don't think i'm quite familiar with that phrase," he admits.

wwx gives him a little gremlin smirk. "i'll explain, with small words."

wen chao spits at him. "you arrogant -- "

"to the pain means the first thing i will make you cut off will be your own feet, at the ankles. then then your hands, at the wrists. next, your nose."

"i killed you too quickly last time," wen chao mutters. "then my tongue, i suppose?"

rage is building in wwx. 16 years. so many lives. his own. his own. his own.

"no," he says, "the next thing you lose will be your left eye, then right."

"then my ears, i understand, let's get ON with it -- "

he came so close to losing lwj. he thought he lost everyone else.

"wrong!" he cries. "your ears you keep, and i'll tell you why."

he thinks of 16 years in the burial mounds. of people shrinking in fear at the sight of him, of using his name for their misdeeds. he thinks of the curses, of the resentment that has fed him, of his own core, lost.

"it is so that you /know./ so that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. everyone who cries out 'dear god, what is that thing?' will echo in your perfect ears."

wen chao says, "i think you're bluffing."

"it's possible," wwx replies.

"lan wangji's core is suppressed," wen chao goes on. "and you don't even have a sword."

"that's true," wwx agrees.

wen chao scoffs. "then what am i meant to be afraid of?"

wwx looks up at lwj's perfect face. lwj smiles down at him, and gives a little nod. it's okay. do it.

"there's something about me you don't know," wwx tells wen chao, but does not look away from lwj's face. he likes it. it's his very favorite one.

wen chao narrows his eyes. his sword is still drawn. "and what is that?" he mocks.

wwx wets his lips & says, "i don't need a sword."

wei wuxian begins to whistle.

the energy comes from everywhere. the wens have been using the shards they had already collected to puppet corpses from all the nearby villages as guards, as servants; wwx calls the energy from all of them, calls TO all of them, and the quake of their many feet shakes the room.

so many ghosts, in this place.

so many dead, and their resentments still so, so alive.

"close your eyes, lan zhan," wei wuxian murmurs, but lan wangji takes his face in his hands and meets his gaze.

"no," he says, and they look only at each other as wen chao is torn apart.

CW: gross!

by the time jc bursts in, wc is a heap on the floor, his feet gone, his hands gone, his eyes gone. his ears, untouched.

"wow. bad," jc says. "should i kill him?"

"thank you, but no," wwx replies. "the point is that he lives. we just did a whole thing about it."

jc shrugs, dipping under wwx's arm. they pause.

"ah, wen chao," wwx says. "release lwj's core. then perhaps i'll kill you."

wc, desperate, does.

lwj hefts wwx into his arms easily, the strength of his core back. wwx nuzzles delightedly into his neck. "hi."

"hello, wei ying."

from outside, wen ning's voice calls: "young masters? where are you?"

jc pushes open the window and all three of them lean out. gathered below is wen ning, wen qing, yanli, and two boys that wwx doesn't recognize.

beside them is lan xichen. "i found him in a cave!" wn says.

"brother," lwj calls.

"wangji," says lxc, smiling. "i -- when wen ning found me and told me all that had happened, i realized ... lady wen, by virtue of her parents, would be the next in line for the throne, if wen chao is dead."

wwx & jc look at each other.

without turning, jc reaches back and quickly stabs wen chao.

"he's dead," they say together.

lxc smiles again, though there's a hint of sadness in it. "a-yao ... well. i am hoping to negotiate."

"i'm open to a conversation," wen qing says. "now let's get out of here."

("they rode to freedom. as dawn arose, wwx and lwj knew they were safe. a wave of love swept over them, and as they reached for each other -- "

a pause.

"what? what?"

"nah, it's kissing again. you don't want to hear that."

"mn...i don't ... mind so much.")

since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure.

this one left them all behind.

(THE END)