Ardelia's children III

Jun Li heard someone going through her old clothes on the attic and after sneaking up the ladder, she nearly got the first heart attack of her life. "What the hell are you doing here, Lan-Lan?" she hissed as she switched on the light. She had recognised her sister's chi signature and her unique way to move in complete darkness. Her own training had made her dodge the kunai her sister had thrown out of reflex and she hated to admit that her survival instinct was still on autopilot after so many years.

"I don't have the time to explain my actions right now," the younger sister replied as she grabbed an old bodyguard armour from the chair. "You have to trust me on this, Jun Li. I would hate to lie to you and if you don't ask me, I don't have to lie right now. You remember our old no-questions-no-lies-policy we used to have before everything got too complicated."

"You are currently stealing my old clothes and you expect me to watch you without asking a single question, Lan? Fat chance, honestly, because I cannot let you steal my identity … and you already took my mask. I noticed that it was missing from my bedroom."

"I only need the identity of an active Xingese bodyguard," the empress said softly as she held the stolen item close to her chest. "Believe me – I would tell you everything if I had the time … and I don't have it. I am undercover and have no warriors to send in my place right now … and first and foremost, it's a noble's duty to protect the people … and that's what I am going to do now."

"I don't wish to fight you," the older sister said tiredly as she leaned against the doorframe. "I wasted too much energy in the hospital today … and I can barely stand. If you were looking for a moment to surpass me, here it is. I am barely able to defend myself."

"This isn't about you and me, Jun Li. I got over your decisions because I realised that you did what you had to do to keep everyone else save. This is about me and the family, this is about me and my mistakes – about the times I failed to show the same kindness you possessed. The one that didn't disappear when times were rough and decisions had to be made," Lan Fan said as she pulled the tight black jacket over her pink shirt. "This is about me and the sins I have to atone for … this is about the times I failed as a member of the Wei-family. You left me in charge of the minor members of the clan. You gave me on last order before you disappeared: to protect those the council of elders was constantly picking on … and I couldn't even defend one single girl."

"Min Li, this is about my daughter," Jun Li said as the same agony she always felt when she was remembered of everything she had missed in her daughter's life ran through her veins.

"Of course it is," Lan Fan said as she tied the belt around her waist. "I was too busy mourning over you and our parents to see those who were suffering even more. I should have known that something was off after no one seemed to care when she was the best member of her class … and I should have known that she was my niece. I should have been able to look straight through all the lies."

"I don't blame you for the mistakes I made," Jun Li said as she opened a secret drawer and handed over a set of her sharpest kunai. "But I won't keep you from your duty either. This is the strange thing about us, huh? As long as there is a duty we can fulfil, we never think about giving up – at all."

"I am sorry for disappointing you – again," the younger sister muttered as she placed the mask over her face. "And should I offend any Dragon Warriors by taking your mask, I am sorry for this as well."

"As long as you respect our philosophy, it isn't much of a deal," Jun Li said as she untied her hair and allowed it to fall down to her waist. "Duty should never be a burden but an honour, bigger than anything else. You would have made a great Dragon Warrior, I guess. Too bad that you were born too late."

"Four members of one family as Dragon Warriors might have been a little bit too much," she replied as she tied the laces of her sister's boots. "I have just one question … did you ever regret?"

"I regret many things … but being a Dragon Warrior isn't among them," Jun Li said. "I hate myself for my cowardice and my disregard for those who had other dreams than I. But all in all, I would do most things all over again … with just a few minor changes … like to speak with grandfather properly."

"…that's bad," Nick muttered as he ran down another hallway and ran straight into another lion-tiger-chimera that charged at him before he managed to create another wall of fire that scared the animal into hiding from him instead of attacking. "Honestly, why can't mother be still alive? She defeated these things in mere seconds … damn, I miss her!"

"I agree," Laila said as she left another hallway and appeared next to him. Her clothes were tattered and her hair was in a mess while her eyes gleamed. "Hell, that guy was pretty good."

"But you're okay, right?" he asked as he wrapped one arm around her as she tripped and nearly fell.

"Sure," she said as she smiled. "I won the battle and right now, I want nothing more than a cold shower and something to eat. Energy Alchemy is far more exhausting than anything else in the world."

"Healing Alchemy is even worse," he remarked as he smiled. "Well, we really should hurry up a bit."

"I agree," his sister said as they hurried down the hallway. "Time is rare at times like these."

Min Li had been top of her year and even today, she was infamous for her style in her hometown. She had made herself a name for her slightly impulsive behaviour when her friends were in danger and right now, she looked like she was about to smash everything in her way. Her hair was out of her face and she had traded her yellow dress for a tight black shirt and wide black pants. If her great-grandfather would be there to see her, he would probably say that she was a splitting image of her mother – especially since she had chosen a set of knives which she carried on her belt and in her clothes, carefully hidden from any piercing eyes.

"We are running out of time," she said as she wrapped her arms around her legs and glared at Edward.

"I am already driving as fast as I can!" he snapped. "Why are we even in such a hurry? They just went home to confront a few people. That's no big deal."

"I have still a bad feeling about this," Elicia muttered as she stared at the passing landscape. "These are the things that would cause trouble in normal families. In this family, there might be a lot of blood."

"We are nearly there," Cai said to cheer her up. "And I am sure that everything will be alright again."

Min Li was strangely silent as her blue eyes narrowed. She had seen fights like these before and she knew that it wasn't unlikely that someone would get hurt and a part of her knew that Nerissa wouldn't be the last one to take a serious injury. The Xingese girl had watched the way other people suffered in silence for many years and often, she had tried to help yet somehow, it hadn't been possible.

"…you know, your sister was really something else," Maxime went on while he poured red wine into his glass. "Reine was an amazing woman … too bad that you managed to ruin her in the end, Bertie."

"I don't think that you knew her the way I knew her," the flame alchemist said calmly as he stared into the falling darkness. "Rain was power-hungry, self-obsessed and at least two-hundred more negative things. If I was you, I wouldn't even mention her again for you are free of the stain."

"You never saw the greatness in her plans with this family," the other man sighed deeply. "She had plans to make us bigger and stronger than anyone else … she had bring us back to the sun where we belong. She wasn't one to let us rot in the darkness, never appreciated and never respected…"

"And so we return to the same point we left off so many years ago," Berthold snapped. "I am tired, can't you understand that? I am tired of fighting inside the family all the time. I am tired of needing to protect my daughters and my other relatives from your madness. I am tired of having to fight my own flesh and blood just because some members of our own family feel the need to gain power by force."

"And so we get the answer we wanted all along," a disgusting high female voice said. "Why, Berthold, why? We wondered this all along … why did you take this, all this silent torture?"

"Dora," he sighed as he looked at her. "I didn't miss you – at all."

"Keep your empty hatred to yourself, Bert," the woman ordered. "You really should tell Maxime why you keep all of this in for so long because if you don't, I am going to tell him."

"I don't care which lie you are going to tell next, Dora," Berthold said darkly. "I really don't need to fear you and your words, Dora. I have seen and heard worse, believe me."

"Really?" she taunted. "From a little boy who ran after this older and stronger sister to a full-grown man who was enough of a coward to let his nieces and daughter fight his battles, you always hated the idea that someone might come and take your beloved ones from you a little bit too much – and this is why we had to hurt Nerissa. That's why we had to sell out Serena and Helena. They were never a risk, foolish little girls they were. You were the risk, Berthold, and yet … it was easier to kill them."

"…because with every time someone close to you died, a little bit of you died as well," Maxime added.

"And we decided for this way to ruin you because we knew just too well that one day, you would break … and from the looks of it, this day is today. Helena's daughter should be nothing but shreds of clothes and a few bones by now," Dora smiled. "Isn't it amazing how easy we defeated you once you showed your ugly face again, Berthold? You always claimed to be the wisest among us … so shouldn't you have seen this coming? Victoria was of no importance to us. We knew that she would be sacrificed for one scheme in this family or another. She was out of the game the second she was born."

"And this is exactly why you will never win this battle or anything else," Berthold replied calmly as he closed his eyes for a moment. "You never managed to think of everything that might happen. I am sure that you managed to get Albus, Minerva and Helen out of the way and I congratulate you for this success. Still, just because you tied me up and just because you claim that you defeated Victoria, I am not beaten. No matter how tired I am, I have still enough power to force you to return to your place."

"You are too sure of your position … in spite of the fact that Laila and Nick were defeated and that Riza is locked up into a room where she cannot escape from," Dora smirked.

A second later, two shots rang out, destroying the ties on Berthold's wrist before the whole electricity of the castle broke down and the fireplaces in various rooms glowed golden from the flames that suddenly appeared in them. Berthold dodged the attacks from his mad relatives and glared at them from his position next to the door. "You haven't won yet," he stated calmly. "This was merely the start."

"Without your heir, the decision is already made," Dora replied as she held her sore cheek where his fist had met her face. "We won because your heir is dead."

Seeing that Min Li had grown up without a mother and that she had dedicated her whole life into becoming a warrior of Jun Li's level, she had never wasted thoughts into what other people thought of her. She had been part of a team with three boys; she had been quite the tomboy when she had been younger. She had been racing the three guys, sleeping on tree branches and especially, diving into lakes whenever she felt dirty without caring about what would be proper. Her uncle who had raised her had been desperate to straighten out those little habits but it had been a lost battle. Min Li Wei was one of the guys and she was happy this things being like this.

She thought about these things as she stripped down to her underwear and handed her clothes to Cai. "Make sure that I can find them on the other side," she said as she faced the water ahead of her. "We won't have much time and so we should be careful not to waste a single second."

"Min, why do you have to do this?" Elicia asked as she looked at the older girl. "The water is freezing cold … why can't you come with us?"

"If we separate and attack from multiple angles, the enemy will have trouble to predict us," Jing stated darkly as he looked everywhere but in his old friend's direction. "It's the first thing we learned when we entered the bodyguard academy … and the thing we were forced to remember many times."

"I see you on the other side," Min Li smiled before she waved and dived into the cold water. Instantly, her whole body tensed up and for the fraction of a second, she feared that she might never return to the surface because the water was so cold and so dark. But then she remembered the gold medals on her wall and she forced herself to stop panicking and a few strong kicks later, she reached the surface and inhaled deeply before she dived into the water again. She was Min Li Wei. She had won multiple medals in the swimming competitions. She had never backed down from a challenge. She would never drown as long as she was still conscious and she had every intention to save her best friend.

Riza was still smirking as she graceful jumped from the roof she had been lying on as she had freed her father down to another one, still looking out for another attack. "Kay was right about the main room being easy prey for any good sniper," she muttered under her breath as she opened another window to sneak back into the building, "too bad for these guys that we prepared situations like these long ago."

To her, it was a matter of pride and honour to get the children and her father out of this mess before anything bad could happen to them. The dancing flames in the fireplaces told her that Nick was well while the blackout was Laila's doing so she could be sure that two of her children were fine while it was uncertain if Victoria was fine as well. She doubted that a few chimeras could kill a girl who had fearlessly faced a former student of her crazy aunt before yet she had a bad feeling about this.

She hurried up as she heard two familiar patterns of steps and smiled as she saw her oldest daughter and her only son before she froze. "Where is Vicky?" she asked.

"Somewhere in the cellar in the chimeras' den if we can believe that creepy guy grandfather just beat up," Nick muttered darkly as he held Laila's hand. "We are trying to tell ourselves not to worry … but hell, that's a tough thing to do … seeing that she never took this long before, did she?"

"Victoria is a good fighter," Laila said sharply as she leaned against his shoulder. "She will manage."

Riza was no fool and she had studied her children's behaviour for many years. She noticed that Laila and Nick were extremely worried because both of them tended to require human warmth and some affection when they were unsure what to do while Victoria was the kind of person who never wanted help from someone else and quickly got annoyed when Laila and Nick became overbearing with their attempts to show her how much they cared.

"I see," Riza said as she stared at the floor, wishing for X-ray vision. "So it happens again…"

And just like all these years ago, there was nothing she could do but wait.

"I really love your plan," Edward grinned as he climbed up the ladder that would bring him to the place where he would start his part of the operation. "Honestly, Elicia, I never knew that you can be like this … this is better than anything our dear chancellor could ever make up…"

"Less talking and more climbing," the girl hissed as she swung herself onto the windowsill before she used one of Nerissa's knives to open the window. "Honestly, Elric, there are other things you should worry about … like the question what is going on between Min Li and her friend."

"She didn't want him to join us, you said earlier, right?" the blond man shrugged. "Maybe she doesn't want him to get hurt … honestly, there could be many reasons and Min Li really doesn't have to tell you why she acts like this. She proved to be trustworthy before, didn't she?"

"Either you are really this dense or you are ignoring the facts," Elicia snapped. "First of all: she never mentioned him before, not even to Victoria who is supposed to be her best friend. Secondly: this guy is an imperial bodyguard who served Lan Fan for two years so he should have some battle experience. I don't get why she doesn't want him to join when he would be so valuable. She always says that she would kill for the welfare of her friends and yet she wanted to leave him at home, completely ignoring that he might be helpful to save Nick – and Laila and Victoria as well, of course."

"She mentioned that she knew him since they were little children," Edward shrugged. "One thing, Elicia: Min Li is three years older than you and when she had your age, she was probably training harder than you ever trained before. She has a different philosophy and knowing her aunt and her great-grandfather, I would say that she was taught to keep her emotions to herself instead of announcing them to the whole wide world. She will tell you soon enough. For now, trust her."

"…you love Min," Cai stated darkly as he glared at Jing. "You have loved her all along, didn't you?"

"I don't think that we should discuss this now," the older boy replied as he blended in with the shadows. "What are those people thinking, anyway? To attack the rightful heir like this…"

"You are avoiding the topic, Jing," the prince said sharply. ""The reason why I am saying this is easy: Min is family … and she doesn't deserve to be heartbroken because of some fool who thinks that it would be funny to mess around with a princess. Min is like the annoying older sister I never had. Well, I have annoying older sisters but you get my point, don't you?"

"Min Li isn't a woman who is easy to love – this is everything I am going to say about this right now," the bodyguard sighed as he grabbed a kunai to force a lock open. "I feel a lot of disturbances beneath us. We should check this out first before we head out to meet the others."

"This isn't part of the plan!" Cai protested. "Elicia is going to rip off my head if we do this!"

"Min and I lost two comrades because we stuck to the plan instead of listening to our feeling. I sure as hell won't risk another life after this experience, Cai."

"I have just one question," Cai suddenly said as he stopped. "Why did Jun Li tell Min that she was 'prettier than rose' before we left? You froze when you heard it while Min ignored it … and since when doesn't Jun Li speak properly?"

For a moment, the older boy froze before he sighed. "It would come out one day anyway," he muttered as he stared into the darkness of the tunnel in front of them. "Qiang Fei, I guess that you know this name just as everyone else does," he said. "The red rose of the Fei-clan … a princess only in name but never in her behaviour. It won't be surprising for you to hear that Jun Li downright hates her. Well, a long time ago, Qiang was madly in love with Lei of the Yao-clan … and seeing that he was Jun Li's, she is still extremely mad at the woman who dared to long after him."

"And why did Jun Li say that Min Li is prettier than Qiang who is in prison right now anyway?"

"Aside from it being the truth? Well, I don't know," Jing said and Cai knew that he was lying.

The old woman in her room closed her eyes. She had never wanted to see this and desperately, she wished that her husband was still alive to share the burden with her but no one had been able to predict that it would get this much out of control. Just like no one knew where the road of life led a human or where the days went once they were over, no one could have told her that this would happen. She tried to ignore the shooting and the screaming inside her castle, her sanctuary. Power or rather the hunger after power had been their downfall – along with some unhappy marriages but no one could say that love grew as their hearts chose. Love was unpredictable, she had decided long ago, and this was the only reason while she still cared about the family who was currently busy destroying itself.

Her heart had stopped crying a terrible long time ago when the grandmother of the current target had reached this room like everyone before her who had been chosen to lead. And back then, the old lady had known that fate had made a mistake because Rain had never been meant to lead anything or anyone. When Helena, the current head's late mother, had reached the room, the silent heart had let out a last sigh because it had been obvious that Helena had been fated to fly and to fall hard one day.

Still, she had been a far better leader than her moronic mother, the old woman decided. Now she was waiting for the girl. She had seen many pictures of the beautiful girl with the deep red hair and the purple eyes which seemed to hold happy and sad secrets at the same time.

She wondered what she would have to tell this girl because she was different from her mother and her grandmother (and no word could cover how happy everyone should be that there was no similarity between Victoria and Rain). There was only time who could answer what Victoria needed to know.

But since their life roads were fated to meet soon, it was probably a good idea to let the fire inside her heart burn brighter than ever before, the old lady mused.

The castle had never seen or heard something like Jadelina Mustang on the warpath. Her anger radiated from her and Nerissa swore that she could feel how it hit the walls and let the whole castle tremble. It was unknown why Jade was this angry but Stevens had offered to stay behind because she feared this anger because it was terribly unpredictable. Jade was a woman of arrays and intelligence, easily distracted by knowledge but she was also a woman of fierce loyalty towards her friends.

"Jade, you might want to calm down a little bit," Nerissa said softly as her fingertips were connected. She seemed too calm to be truly relaxed and the slight twitching of her eyebrow betrayed her inner wrath. She was better at concealing her emotions than Jade this time which had never happened before because the so-called Emerald Princess had always been extremely skilled at hiding herself.

"You ask me to calm down?" Jade hissed. "You have to be kidding me, Nessa. I never calmed down when I got the chance to avenge my fallen friends – and right now, it's handed to me on a silver plate. I don't think that you understand the way my family operates: we avenge our fallen."

Nerissa understood better than Jade might have predicted because Nerissa knew when the Mustang-family had been founded so many years ago that hardly an Amestrian still knew that there had been a time without them. They had been a family made for war and therefore they were bound by their honour and their honour requested to avenge any fallen friends as soon as there was the chance to do so. And Jade was not different from her relatives who had lived many years ago and so it was part of her to seek revenge for her friends who had died because of the scheming of the very people they were currently searching. Jade was like her aunts and her mother – she didn't know the meaning of 'treason' because even though she had once betrayed her superiors, she had never truly betrayed anyone.

Deep down, Nerissa knew that the Hawkeyes and the Mustangs were far more alike than any family would ever care to admit. They shared the loyalty and the determination to overcome limits because they needed to grow and to become stronger than they were.

When Ardelia Hawkeye had been a young girl of eight summers, her father had taken her to the city where they had attended the funeral of a fallen member of their family. Maxime had been somewhere with their mother, probably some charity lunch, and so the girl had been stuck with her dad whom she had adored for the longest time of her life. And as they had watched how the coffin had been lowered into the cold and dark earth, the old Sir Hawkeye had looked at his only daughter who embodied the brilliancy her family was famous for and he had ruffled her hair before he had looked seriously into her purple eyes. "Daughter," he had said so many years ago. "When you are a grownup, don't allow anyone to marry you off to some fool. There is more in you and you are meant to be more than just someone's little wife. So, would you please be the saviour for our family? And for all the others, the beaten and the defeated who need one? It will be hard for you but … one day, you will have to stand up against everyone, the elders and maybe even your brother. And I won't be there to help you."

She had smiled and held his hand tightly. "I promise," she had replied. "I am going to be as strong as you want me to be … and I will ruin the elders' plans."

Sometimes she still had the feeling that her father was watching over her and then she wondered if he was proud of what she had become. She had gotten old, older than any other member of her family, outliving her moron of her brother just as much as her husband and her own children. Sometimes, she felt like it was time for her to leave and die from old age but how could she when she had still something left to do? Her cold fingers grabbed the rings and pressed it against her heart. She had seen war in her life as an alchemist and as leader of an important family and sometimes, she still remembered the corpses on the streets. She had hated war and she had hated the very idea of the state alchemist program once she had caught word of it. Her information network had slowly collapsed as her old informants had died from old age while she had kept on living because she couldn't go yet. She had to make sure that her family was in good hands. Her son, August, had died young and her grandson Felix hadn't been cut out to be a good leader. Rain had been a failure in any aspect and Helena hadn't been alive for enough years to judge her by. Should Victoria prove to be as weak as her grandmother, Ardelia wasn't sure what she would do.

In a world that sent her stumbling down the road of destroyed dreams, she knew that her brother's misery and hate would kill them all – especially since he had passed on this legacy to all his heirs. But there was no way that she would scratch out her own line and give back what she had taken when she had been fifteen. And this was common knowledge among Maxime's children who held some twisted kind of respect for her seeing that she was old and furthermore, their founder's little sister. It wasn't like she had shouted it from the roofs of the town but it had been obvious to everyone that she would be defiant and proud to the end.

And even though it sounded arrogant, it was known among her relatives that she had always carried on with her life when she had lost someone because in her eyes even though someone was dead and gone, his memory would always be remembered. And though her kinsmen might be broken and defeated, she would always keep marching on. She hadn't cared about her fears or about the way her own kinsmen had been disappointed with her because do it or die had often been the choices she had had and she had always chosen to act instead of being pushed around because no one would ever be able to order her around. It was impossible because she had guarded her heart for a long time and so no one had any hold on her. The others had gone and tried to break her down but she had never given in. She had wanted it all and so she had played the cards she had been dealt without looking back. She would never explain herself to her heirs who were suffering in her place or say that she was sorry for overthrowing her brother because she wasn't.

She was more than hundred years old and after all this time, she still felt no shame for what she had done and she was proud to show the scars she had gotten on her way. She had walked this way on her own and now, she wouldn't surrender everything as she prayed for all the broken who would never be who they were meant to be because death had caught them too early.

After all, she was just a woman who had wanted to protect her family and no heroine but frankly, she didn't care anymore.

Victoria had lost count of the chimeras she had killed long ago as her motions had gotten more and more complicated because she had to manoeuvre between attacking beasts and the corpses of those she had already managed to kill. She didn't view this act as a sin on her behalf because she had to fight them in order to stay alive and she knew that there was no other chance for her to get out alive and no matter how much she wished that she could be Laila who harmed but never left traces or blood, she knew that she had to be prepared for bloodshed and agony when she truly wanted to rise to the top.

The sword she had taken from the wall to defend herself was a lighter weapon than the one she had been training with under Olivier's often harsh tutorage and as she twirled around to kill off another chimera. Fifty of them were here to kill her and she was lucky that she was still alive so far. She had taken care of the first ones with her gloves because Healing Alchemy made a pretty good and reliable weapon but when she had avoided a counterattack, she had ruined her destruction gloves and this had forced her to change her weapons. She hated when these things happened because she hated to be weak and seeing that she had forced herself to grow, that she had became more than just a little girl who healed the people who defended her, it was truly embarrassing for her that she was still unable to defend herself properly. She scoffed at her own weakness once more before she backflipped to avoid another injury and as soon as she stood again, she wiped away the blood from her forehead.

It was too much for her to stand a second longer but honestly, she had no choice but to keep fighting. She was no one who could be bent into a shape and she knew that the others were serious about killing her and she couldn't do this to her family. And so she stayed on her feet and kept fighting even though she felt like she needed a break.

"…it's obvious, now," a black-haired teenager of Min Li's age muttered as he landed on the branch of a tree and stared into the distance. "She has still the same chi signature she had all those years ago."

"The chi signature hardly changes," the woman with the mask replied as she sighed deeply. "We are close to our goal, I believe. Still, we really should hurry up. This is far too dangerous without us taking care of the minor family members. … and I really want to have everyone getting out alive."

"This is dangerous," the young man replied as he crossed his arms and stared at the looming castle above them. "I feel the bad chi signatures radiating from this building. I don't like this."

"So I am not the only one who feels this," the boy muttered as he frowned deeply while his fingertips traced the scar on his jaw. "This feels worse than the Fei-dungeon."

"And you would know," his partner added darkly. "We really should get going. We didn't come this far to lose her now. This would be against our oath."

"And seeing that he stood true to our words for the past eleven years, we won't fail her now."

Most people knew Victoria as the well-dressed and polite daughter of the chancellor. Others had seen her dishevelled and tired after a competition. But no one had seen her like this: blood had died her hair a few shades darker, her formerly neat clothes were ruined and partially ripped apart and her skin showed injuries from where claws had cut through her smooth skin. Her purple eyes had a wild expression, an utterly devastated yet untamed one.

She limped slightly as she hurried up the stairs, away from the blood and the madness related to it. As she saw her reflection in a mirror, she stopped for a second because she looked even older than before. She had always looked older than she actually was but never this much and it hurt, hurt, hurt her to know that she who had grown faster than her siblings would grow old before her time as well and when Nick and Laila would be in full-bloom, she would already start to wither.

"Damn," she cursed as she opened a door and slipped into a room, searching for water to clean her face with. But inside the room was a bed and on the bed was an extremely old woman who looked up from the book she had been reading as the girl entered. Two pairs of purple eyes widened and for a second, Victoria marvelled at the wisdom and the brilliancy in the other set of amethyst orbs.

"Funny, really funny," the old woman stated. "It seems like it was just yesterday that your mother took exactly the same way and chose the same door after her fight … yet, you look … wilder…"

"Y-you knew my mother?" Victoria stuttered while she straightened up a little bit.

"Oh yes, my darling, I knew her better than she might have known," the old lady replied. "As you might have guessed, my name is Ardelia Hawkeye and I am truly ridiculously old."

"I wouldn't have guessed," Victoria said drily as her brain caught up with her. "Anyway, can you tell me where I can get some water to clean myself and some new clothes before I ruin my image completely?"

"Impatient like your mother," Ardelia grinned as she crossed her arms. "You really should spend some time meditating and relaxing. It helped Nerissa quite a bit when she was younger."

"I probably shouldn't be surprised," Victoria said softly as she wrapped the remains of her coat closer around her shoulders. "I really need those things, you see? I can't let them wait on me."

"Of course," the old woman smiled. "First door to the right, Victoria, I even prepared some clothes."

"Thank you," the girl said and walked without looking back out of the room.

"Looks like Helena managed to raise her from her own grave into the kind of leader we need," Ardelia said as she smiled at her empty palm where the ring had left traces. "So … maybe we will finally walk into the future we deserve? Maybe we will finally have a leader who thinks about the future instead of the past? One that isn't trapped in old nightmares and haunting memories?"

She jerked one last time on the chain that had confined her to the wall and finally, it gave in and she could step away from the wall that had been part of her prison. White hair was curled in a refined way but deep brown eyes blazed with the unleashed wrath of many years as she walked to the door before she looked back at her fellow elders who were still tied up. "I come back for you later," she said as she waved at her husband. "There is a duty I have to fulfil and I debt I have to pay back."

"Be careful," he said as he tried to free himself.

She looked down. "I cannot promise this," she said as she closed the door behind her as she dragged her chains behind her. "I know that this will take my life," she whispered. "And I am not scared."

Preview for the story I will upload tomorrow:

"So, let's make our vows," Ping stated as he walked closer to them. "I vow that I am obeying my team leader and that I will never betray any secrets of the team to an enemy. I promise furthermore that I am going to die for my teammates and my village if necessary. My highest priority will be the team and no duty towards my clan will change this. And I will grow and blossom."

"I vow," Lee said after kneeling down onto one knee, "that I will grow so that I can be strong enough to protect my team and my village. I will never betray any secrets of the team or a single teammate to a stranger. My loyalty is in my leader's hands and I will obey. Furthermore, I won't rest until everyone I know will be happy and able to enjoy his or her life."

"I vow," Jing said after following Lee's example, "that my loyalty will always be with my team and that I will never betray the team's case for a selfish reason such as revenge or another low intention. I furthermore swear that I will listen to my leader, no matter what the situation might be. I will guard the secrets of my team with my life and I am going to die for my team if necessary."

Min Li sunk down onto both knees unlike her male teammates and folded her hand sin front of her chest. "I vow hereby that I will grow so that I can protect you, my family and every other person I deem as worthy of my protection. I promise that I will never abuse the faith you set into me and that I will guard the secrets of the team, the family and the village likewise. I swear on my life that I will never abandon a comrade and that I will always think about the others before I think of my own advantage," she said. "And like Ping, I will grow and blossom one day."

It was fate that made a thunder resound above them just when the last of them had finished her vow yet as they ran back to the village to avoid the thunderstorm, Ping realised that they had stopped being children the moment they had promised. And even though Min Li had been the only one who had made it explicit that she had sworn on her life, everyone had did this.

It is obviously a Xing-centred fanfiction with quite a few OCs because we only have 4 Xingese characters.