Author's Note: In which I disavow any claim to ownership of Xiaolin Showdown/Chronicles, and do truly beg that no legal action be taken against my meager estate. This is a one-shot set sometime after the End of the World, it probably owes a lot to the movie The Road based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Once again, this will probably be a one-shot only, not to be a c0cktea5e or anything, this kept popping up while I was brainstorming a tangentially related story, but did not fit anywhere in that one. Enjoy the fruit of my literary ohrwurm!
The woman trudged along the narrow road that led through the middle of the lake. The boy walked with her, sometimes darting ahead, sometimes keeping pace with her as she pushed the wheelbarrow full of their meager supplies. Soon, she slowed to a crawl. They had been walking since sometime before dawn, at least as far as she could tell, and the watch she wore proclaimed it to be past 7 pm through its shattered face. The fog that shielded them from sight also made it hard to tell the time.
"We need to rest," she told the boy. He looked up at her, concerned. She saw his brow furrow above eyes that seemed much too old for a six-year-old. She rubbed blue eyes that she knew were blood-shot and smiled to try to reassure him. "It's fine. I just get tired when I'm pushing this thing."
"I could do it for a while. I'm strong, and pretty soon I'll be taller than you." She resisted the urge to ruffle his unruly black hair that stuck up in cowlicks all over the place. He would've resented it.
"We'll rest for a little while. Then we should keep going. This path is very narrow, and the lake is too close." She shivered. This was not her element. Still, it had almost seemed to be a sign from the past that they had found this road at all, and when the drifting fog closed in around them, she knew it was right to take it. The name made her uneasy: Devil's Lake, in what used to be North Dakota. She sat down and leaned back against the wheelbarrow, pulling her scarf down from her face. Her tattered coat was warmer than it looked despite all the holes and she unbuttoned it for a moment. Her hand encountered the edge of a picture she kept in the breast pocket of her sweater, and she pulled it out.
"Hey guys," she said softly, tracing each of their faces. "Happy birthday to me. I didn't think we'd get quite this far." Her hand stilled when it encountered the Brazilian boy, grinning—no, smirking at the camera as he held his arm around the petite Japanese girl by his side. Every time the boy now looked at her with his too-old eyes, she saw Him. That and His height was all the boy seemed to have from Him, he was Her in most other ways. Despite his protest at the brief rest, he was now cuddled up by her side.
"21 today, and maybe the only great accomplishment I've done is stay alive. With your help," she added as a light breeze caressed her face. In her head, she went over the tally. Dead, when the Heylin rose to power. Turned, held by an oath he didn't even remember taking. Missing, maybe dead. How? Tell me. No, don't tell me. Maybe then I can pretend we'll see each other again. She couldn't bring herself to name them; it made it seem real again whereas now it felt like a dream she'd had as a child. The proof that it wasn't lay by her side, his thumb just falling out of his mouth as he slept. Of course you don't suck your thumb anymore. That's only for babies. Sure. She felt the breeze again, soothing her. She closed her eyes, only meaning to do so for a minute
"Mama! Wake up!" She jerked back to consciousness, almost toppling over into the water. The boy grabbed her thin wrist, steadying her. It was full dark out now, she couldn't see the stars through the fog. She pulled the boy close to her, quieting him as she listened for any possible threat. Aside from the water lapping at the road, she heard nothing, and relaxed her grip.
"It's ok, we just rested for a little longer than we meant to." She grabbed the matches out of her pocket and went to light the lantern that hung off one of the wheelbarrow's handles. She didn't dare draw attention to them by exercising even a little of her powers. The boy took his place at her side, holding onto a corner of her coat, normally too tough to cling on her. He must have had quite the scare when he woke up.
"Really, we're fine. This means we can keep going." She took up the handles of the wheelbarrow and looked down at the boy. He looked back up at her and for a moment, his eyes seemed nearly as blue as the heart of a flame. "Remember what we're doing, Hiroaki?"
"We keep the fire burning."
"Until the end," she added, this time reaching out to caress his unruly hair and for once, he didn't pull away looking disgusted. "Whatever end that may be."