Bondage
by Nyohah
9
The Heroic Trio
Letter to Yuan Li
Liu Kang had to fight Kung Lao. You should have seen their faces. It was very amusing, their disbelief at the thought that they would possibly they have to seriously injure their 'brother'. Liu Kang won, of course, though Lao put up a very good fight.
Kitana disqualified Jax from the tournament. And Scorpion beat Baraka, though I don't know any details of that fight. I fought Sub-Zero, and I have to say I was much surprised at his talent. I beat him, but he was very fast.
The evening after I found out you were dying, I left. I couldn't stay there anymore. I couldn't go back. So I went to the Underworld. Ten days had passed since I was told to get the invisible robe. I didn't have it.
In the abandoned intersection that was the location of the underworld's entrance Number Seven intercepted me. I wondered how long she had been staked out in the area, waiting for me to show up.
I had just kicked open the manhole.
"Number Three." I turned around to face her. "Do you still go to that old monster?" I started to walk back to her. She had torn off the left arm of her jacket and taken strips from it, tying them tightly around her arm, which was looking very poisoned.
"You think he'll let the doctor live?" she asked. "As soon as the invisible robe is finished, he'll have you kill him."
I felt like saying, "Tell me something I don't know." Instead I asked, "How many needles did you get?"
She grabbed her arm and looked around flustered. "Only if you help us will Wonder Woman and I have a chance to kill the old monster."
I grabbed toward her arm. She slapped my hand away, but I reached with the other and got a firm grasp on her wrist. She tried to knee me, but I blocked it. She tried to slap me, but I blocked it, pushing her arm away with such force that she spun away. I pulled her forward, and twisted her arm, forcing her to bend over. I reached down and pulled her knife out of the top of her fishnet stockings.
She was leaning against a pillar, grunting. I spun back, forcing her body against it with mine. Then I placed the blunt edge of the knife on the vein running through her arm that the needle had imbedded itself in. She screamed in pain. I waited for the pressure to build up, then released my pressure, at the same time dragging the knife along the path the needle had taken, forcing it out. A trail of blood ran out of Number Seven's hand. I held her wrist until the poison had all drained out, then I released it, walking away.
"You're such a wimp! How can you help Wonder Woman?"
"I don't care what you say. You saved my life." She was talking as fast as she could, trying to get her message out before I reached the hole. "But please ask yourself. In order to protect the doctor, you'd let the old monster control you." I stopped and listened to her. "How many innocent babies must die? You can lie to others, but you can't lie to yourself." I started to walk away. "Wonder Woman may be able to help you now. Meet me at the fields tomorrow." I kicked open the manhole. "I will not leave until you show up!" she shouted as I jumped down the hole.
I stood before the Master and his four guards. He was walking around, an obvious sign of his agitation. I was trying to explain to him why I didn't have the robe.
"Number Three, where is the robe?"
"The invisible robe is still not functional under the sun," I explained. "This would mean a much less powerful weapon for the Emperor's army. The doctor is very close to perfecting his formula. I thought I'd give him a couple more days."
The Master started down the stairs toward me. "By tomorrow sundown, perfected or not, I want the invisible robe. Number Nine will assist you when the time comes." He walked past me and I followed him.
"In Master's grand plan, my work is so insignificant." We entered the maze of birdcages, each containing a baby.
"If I can only find an emperor among the princes, you will not go unrewarded!" Master turned and looked in at a baby. He was sleeping peacefully. We continued on. There was a noise coming from the next cage. The baby was fidgeting and making little noises. We both looked at him.
"The other princes are asleep," said the Master. He lifted up a hand, holding three poison needles. "You should be too!"
I jerked forward instinctively, reaching out my arm, but I stopped myself, so I wouldn't commit such an atrocious betrayal. Master threw the needles at his head, and walked away.
I lingered at the cage staring at the now-dead baby and wondering why I allowed myself to serve the monster. I finally managed to make myself leave, and I had to walk quickly to catch up with the Master.
He was walking toward the group of little boys. "If each and every one of them can be invisible, they'll be even more powerful than Number Nine."
The boys were crouched on the ground, eating what little was left of the human corpses they had already devoured. They would all be Number Nines someday.
"At that time," Master said, referring to the time they would be grown up, "the world will belong to the Emperor and I. Number Three, do you know how important you are?"
"Yes, Master."
After I left the underworld, I wandered aimlessly. Eventually, it began to lightning and sprinkle.
A lightning bolt hit the ground in front of me. I heard the Master's voice.
*Our lucky day is here. Perfected or not, the invisible robe must be brought to me.*
Another bolt hit, just in front and to the right of me.
*Then, kill the doctor.*
I decided what I had to do so I couldn't kill the doctor. But I couldn't do it myself. Number Seven was easily provoked, though.
It was raining quite hard when I passed a telephone booth, and decided to make use of it.
You answered the phone with a cough, and a faint "Yuan Li."
"You must leave the lab," I said.
"Ching? Is that you? Come back."
"Doctor," I said, "I will never come back again."
"I will not leave unless I see you."
"Trust me. You're now in grave danger. Leave the lab at once." I hung up.
The next day I borrowed a horse and rode toward the fields outside of Hong Kong. I hadn't even bothered to change.
Number Seven looked as though she had been waiting for a while, and Wonder Woman was not there. That surprised me. I kicked my right leg over the horse, dropped to the ground, and walked toward Number Seven.
"Welcome to the party!" Number Seven said sarcastically.
I continued toward her. "Master has sent me to kill you," I lied.
"Wait, Number Three..."
"I won't let you off so easily this time." I squared off, ten feet from her.
"You think you can really kill me?"
"I must follow Master's orders. But I can promise you I'll do one thing for you after you're dead."
"Hold it right there. I may not be the one to die." Number Seven was taking the bait perfectly. "It could be you. Do you have any unfinished business? Tell me now."
"Take care of the doctor for me."
"Doctor?" questioned Number Seven as I snapped my chain out toward her face.
Number Seven stumbled backward and drew her knife. We spun in a game in which everything depended on dodging the other's weapon, and the goal was to penetrate the other's defenses with your own. Eventually I punched her in the chest and jumped backward.
She, too, jumped back, and she threw her knife toward me, just as I had wanted. She turned around to wait until I blocked it.
I dropped my hands down and watched the spinning blade as it drew ever closer to my neck.
"Save the doctor for me!" I stressed.
Number Seven finally got it and started to run toward me. She would never make it in time.
I watched the blade as it approached, a meter from my neck. A foot. Six inches.
Another blade suddenly appeared in front of my face, and I flinched backward, not expecting this one. It deflected Number Seven's knife, aiming it back to her, where she caught it.
Wonder Woman dropped to the ground in front of me.
Number Seven walked toward me. "Number Three, what were you trying to pull?"
Wonder Woman answered for me. "She did not come here to kill you. She came here to get herself killed."
Number Seven looked back to me. "You're sacrificing your life to save that man?"
"My life? I'm just an animal that Master uses to kill."
"Animals don't have feelings," said Wonder Woman. "And they definitely do not sacrifice themselves for others." She reached up behind her head and carefully removed her mask.
I looked at the woman in shock. It was Mrs. Lau. There was no longer any doubt why she thought she could save the babies from the psycho in the hospital. She undoubtedly could have.
"Your life is meaningful when you are willing to face yourself," she continued.
"No," I said, backing away. "I can't face myself." I turned and ran toward my horse. "And most of all, I can't face him!"
"Number Three!" she yelled after me. I jumped off of a large rock, landing on the fence and stepping onto the horse's back, kicking it to make it run. Wonder Woman followed me.
We rode past the meadows onto a beach.
"Number Three!" Wonder Woman yelled. "You can change from now on."
"What difference would it make? I'm still Number Three."
She still followed me as we left the beach. "It's too late! Don't follow me. Let me go!"
"You've shunned your past. This is your true self."
"I deserve to die." Up ahead I saw a cliff. I headed straight for it. Wonder Woman caught up with me, and as the cliff grew nearer, she saw what I planned to do.
Feet from the edge, she jumped off her horse and tackled me, trying to keep me at the top. It didn't work. We hit some rocks at the edge and continued to slide down. Somehow, during the fall, she managed to grab my wrist, and even more amazingly, she found a tiny ledge on the side and latched her fingers to it, holding on through sheer will more than anything else.
My feet dangled in midair. This was the same cliff the raven-haired girl had fallen off of.
More rocks tumbled down. Number Seven had arrived at the top, looking down at us in horror. As I looked up at her, I noticed something else.
Our struggles had somehow managed to make each of our mid-bicep length gloves slide down to our wrists, more a miracle than anything else. Our hands were latched around each other's elbows, and perfectly lined up in the middle of our forearms was a tattoo of a V-shaped blade, one almost identical to the darts Wonder Woman used. The point was on her arm. The legs were on mine.
As I hung there, something else came to me.
The raven-haired little girl stood in a place that had tall pillars that glowed from the heat of the earth's core. The underworld.
Behind her stood an old, rather short man in flowing robes. He looked exactly like my Master, only minus the headdress.
"You're no longer Ching," the demon said. "Starting today you will be known as Number Three." A log hit the raven-haired girl in the back of the head and she fell forward, crying out from the pain.
I could no longer deny that the girl could be me; she most definitely was. I remembered that the girl had a sister who had been standing on the top of the cliff when she fell. The girl's sister suddenly had a name—Tung.
I looked at Wonder Woman, and saw she was staring back at me.
"Tung-Tung?" I asked.
"Ching-Ching?" Wonder Woman replied.
"Let go of my hand or we'll both fall."
"No," she said stubbornly. Then the rock she was holding onto broke from the side of the cliff, and we slid down even farther.
Again, Tung somehow managed to grip the rock face.
"Catch!" yelled Number Seven from the top of the cliff, and the two ends of a rope came down, one for each of us. We gladly grabbed it, and slid down, as our combined body weight pulled Number Seven forward.
"I can't hold it much longer," she warned, but I didn't move. And Tung had obviously decided she would not go until I did.
Tung looked at me. "I won't let go. If you want to let go, we'll let go together."
I did want to end my life, but not at the expense of my sister's and I then figured out what was nagging at me. The Master said Number Nine would help me. So whether or not I went to get the robe, Number Nine would, he would be instructed to kill you, and he would show no mercy.
"Is it really you?" I asked, clarifying my position, and also stalling while I contemplated what I wanted to do.
"You two really know each other?" asked Number Seven from the top of the cliff.
"I don't remember anymore!" I half-lied, but she cut me off.
"The past is not important. What's important is what you want to do now."
"Say it!" yelled Number Seven, who obviously didn't care too much, but who definitely wanted us to climb up as soon as possible, as she was in pain.
"Master has sent Number Nine to kill the Doctor. I want to save him."
"Doctor?" yelled Number Seven, still disbelieving.
I turned and began to climb up the rope. Tung immediately followed me.
At the top we remounted our horses—or motorcycle—and rode back to Hong Kong.
I ran ahead of the others, into the room with the glass panes. I looked into the lab and saw you.
Your hands were tied together and you hung from the ceiling on a hook.
Number Nine was crouched on the giant machine, holding the contraption he used to decapitate people. It was shaped like a hat with a veil that hung down all around it, but made out of chain mail. Razors were hidden in the bottom, and when it was thrown upon a person's head, Number Nine could cause it to cleanly slice through their head. It was really quite helpful when Master literally wanted someone's head, as it would stay inside unless taken out.
You slowly lifted your head, blood and sweat dripping off of it.
I ran back to Number Seven who had just come in the door. "Give it to me!" I said, taking her shotgun. I ran toward the glass, shooting it three times. I threw the gun back toward Number Seven and leapt through the shattering glass.
I ran up toward you, but stopped as I reached the desk. Above, you slowly shook your head at me, as Number Nine jumped down from the machine. To my dismay, he threw his decapitating device back toward you. It landed on your head, but Nine didn't pull on the robe and cut off your head.
"The invisible robe is light-proof now," you managed. "No one can find it."
Number Nine wrapped the chain around his fist, and started to pull on it.
"No!" I screamed and to my amazement, Number Nine stopped. The blades must have barely started to cut into your neck. Number Nine stood, staring straightforward, oblivious to the drops of blood that fell onto his upraised hand.
"Ching, I have so much to say to you," you said. "It's all in the box." I looked down toward the desk. There was a small box sitting there. I reached down and pulled off the lid. A small, black tape recorder lay inside. I lifted it out.
Number Nine grunted and stuck out his left hand. Somewhere along the line he must have lost the other three fingers on that hand, because the fingers of his glove drooped.
Number Seven, from her position against the frame that had once held the panes of glass, threw her knife at Number Nine. It spun forward and slashed a deep cut into his upper arm. He looked down in surprise at the blood that was welling on his arm, but otherwise, made no movements, or any acknowledgements of pain.
Number Seven caught her knife and scrutinized it, as if making sure it was still sharp.
"It doesn't matter how you hit him," I explained. "He will not let go until he's gotten what he came for." I heard a sound coming from another direction—Tung's—and I faced her as she swung her sword in a desperate attempt to slow me down. I brought my right hand up from the opposite direction her blade was coming and caught it, holding it away from my chest.
Tung started to say something, but paused as she watched the blood from my hand run down her sword. She got her nerve back and said, "You can't give it to him."
"I've got nothing left now." I lowered her sword down. "I cannot lose him too." I threw the tape recorder to Number Nine.
He reached out to catch it, but Number Seven thought fast and threw her knife at it, deflecting it away. Number Nine started to move forward to retrieve the tape. Tung grabbed a blade from her hair and threw it slightly upward; severing both the chain that activated the decapitator, and the rope that held you up.
I ran forward and caught you as you fell to the ground, then gently laid you down. Tung started to fight Number Nine as I removed the device from your head. "I'm sorry," I whispered.
You shook your head, "I know your Master cannot make you kill me." I briefly wondered how you knew, and then glanced up as Number Nine threw Tung across the room and started to the recorder.
She threw a dart at his back, but it just imbedded itself, and he didn't even flinch. He reached down, and Tung threw another, knocking the recorder away, where Number Seven caught it under her foot.
I looked back down, not saying anything. I heard a few gunshots as I helped you sit up.
Number Nine was once again reaching for the tape, but Tung jumped and kicked him in the back, knocking him forward. They resumed their fight.
Number Nine eventually, in a series of missing punches, managed to punch a hole through the machine. Steam burst through the hole, making him stumble backward slightly.
The room immediately started to heat up. "Come on, let's get out of here," I said, helping you up.
"Idiot, the tape is over here." I looked up and saw Number Seven standing on the machine, holding up the tape recorder. Number Nine looked over and growled. "Come and get it!" she yelled throwing it up in the air. Number Nine jumped up, getting leverage from the end of the machine. Then Number Seven opened it up, and jumped down. "Good-bye!"
Number Nine caught the tape, but fell down into the machine.
"It's getting too hot," said Tung, "we can't stay here."
I was already running forward, supporting you as you also ran with me. They joined us on our way out. Explosions went off all along the machine.
We ran out into the room that once had had glass, and found that it was considerably cooler, so we stopped, sat you down and kneeled around you.
The machine suddenly stopped, having emitted all the gas and heat in it.
"Ching," you coughed, "it's better to destroy the equipment then to let it fall into their hands." You forced a smile.
"Let's go!" said Number Seven nodding her head in the direction of the door. I looked up, and Tung met my gaze. She understood.
"You two go ahead!" I urged.
"Then what about you?" asked Number Seven, angrily.
"Let her be." Tung cut her off. She stood up and walked away. Number Seven hopped up and followed her.
"Where are we going?"
"To the monster dungeon to rescue the babies," stated Tung.
"Just the two of us?" asked Number Seven skeptically, and she glanced back at me as she walked out the door. "Let me at least grab my weapon first!"
You grabbed my arm and pulled yourself farther upward. "May I take a look at the flowers that bloomed?"
For the first time in my memory, the tears escaped from my eyes, and I didn't even bother to try to hold them back. I walked away from you to grab the flowers, now in full bloom.
I picked them up and turned around, but on the floor your body was no longer moving, not even breathing.
I sank back down into a chair and sat there for a long time.
Eventually, I sat the flowers back down and rose. Pausing once at the door to turn around and look one more time to make sure you weren't suddenly breathing, I left and headed toward the entrance to the underworld.
Once there, I heard the sounds of a fight going on, so I ran, taking a different path than usual. They were fighting in front of the dais the Master usually stood on.
As I ran up the back side and across the top, I saw Master holding one of Number Seven's ammo belts.
I jumped off the dais and lashed out with my enchanted chain, praying and relying on every judgment I could make on the distance and angle as Master caused the bullets for Number Seven's machine gun to erupt from their holding places. Some higher being than I must have been helping me for I managed to catch every bullet and deflect them.
I landed in front of Number Seven and Tung, crouching and preparing for another offensive. "Tung, take Number Seven and get out of here!"
"No!" protested Number Seven. "I want to fight him to the bitter end!"
"No," replied Tung. Master moved forward a step.
I looked back at them. "You have to leave now or you'll get poisoned!" The air was highly concentrated with methane, and Master also had his needles to use; in all honesty I don't know why he hadn't yet.
I looked back and heard Tung say, "Let's go!" and the sound of running feet.
I leapt forward and swung my chain out toward Master, in much the same fashion as I had against Number Seven. The demon may have been very old, but he was still a very good fighter, and even unarmed he managed to avoid my chain and everything else I threw at him, even the kicks I flashed in. We jumped together, attacking and defending with the same style, he having been my teacher. I tried everything, even lowering myself down into the splits and flinging the chain at his feet, attempting to trip him, but it was no use. I could not defeat him myself.
I landed in a crouch after yet another missed jumping swing, and ran back toward the ropes. Master followed me, but I had always been faster.
I found that only one rope remained, a new one, dropped by Tung, and I grabbed onto it, and found myself not even needing to climb. Tung pulled me up, leaving the Master down below. I boosted myself out of the hole, using the force of wind, and landed on the street above.
Number Seven ran forward, fistfuls of sizzling dynamite in her hands. "Happy New Year!" she exclaimed throwing them into the hole. We ran away, as explosions racked the street.
After several explosions, we stopped, having nowhere left to run, surrounded by smoke billowing from blown-off manhole covers and water bursting from the remains of fire hydrants. We surveyed the wreckage, and Number Seven proclaimed, "Good! I've turned you into a roast chicken!"
Just then, another cover blew off. We all turned our heads in surprise. "Why is this one so slow?" wondered Seven.
Then we saw the shape rising out of the hole, just below the cover. "He's still not dead yet?"
He flew up into the air, far beyond what any normal human could jump, or what the force of the explosion would have taken him. We all ran forward the meet him as he fell back down to meet us.
Our trio formed a circle around the demon, each of us trying to dismember him with our particular weapon, unsuccessfully, as his more highly developed—and extra—senses alerted him to each attack.
Number Seven and I both attacked, driving him forward, while Tung backed up, trying to catch him from behind. We were all basically spinning, and we all turned around to see he had cheated, spinning up into the air. We stopped, as he landed on a bridge, bolts of lightning flickering around him. We all ran forward to the bridge and stood, regrouping to come up with a new plan.
The demon just laughed at us, at our pitiful efforts to destroy him.
"I'll blow you to pieces!" shouted Number Seven, pulling out an extraordinarily large stick of explosives, and pulling off the end, lighting it. She threw it up toward the monster. He reached out his hand and made a fist, as if squeezing the dynamite. It exploded in a bright flash of light, and the demon reached his hands up to his face to shield his eyes. He'd been in the underworld for a very long time.
"He's afraid of light," I noted.
"Throw some more," instructed Tung.
Number Seven pulled out another stick of explosives and raised it in the air, but then she strained her head back, as if caught around the throat. Tung immediately put her hand to her throat, as if trying to pull off another's hand.
The demon stood on the bridge, his hands out, and he slowly raised them. My allies began to lift off the ground.
I draped my chain around my neck and leapt up, grabbing their feet before they were too far up. I looked up at the demon, then summoned the force of wind yet again to propel me up as I climbed up Tung and Seven's sides, also relying on the demon's almost unbreakable hold he had on them. I jumped off their shoulders, reaching an even height with the demon and throwing out my chain. He looked over at me, and hissed.
The chain he'd given me obeyed his will and erupted in a series of tiny explosions, each severing a link and throwing it back at my chest, with enough force to reverse my momentum, sending me hurtling toward the ground.
I hit a surface much more giving than the road, and heard glass shattering, seeing fragments of glass erupting from all four directions under me. I rolled on my side, and blacked out for a few seconds.
I woke up to an extremely bright flash. Then, as it receded, I saw two figures falling to the ground. They got caught on some telephone wire, which slowed down their descent, and then they hit the ground.
I forced myself to lean up a little and make sure Tung and Number Seven were all right. They lay on the ground for a few seconds, then Number Seven cursed and sat up. I tried to sit up more, alarmed, when she patted her face. She turned to the rising Tung and asked, "Is my face okay?"
Tung breathed a sigh of relief.
"What?" asked Number Seven, "Is he dead?"
"I don't know if you're dead," replied Tung, "but you almost scared me to death."
I groaned and lay back down. But a giant fireball caught my attention. I leaned forward again, and watched, horror growing, as a figure stepped out of the flames.
It was a skeleton, almost, with flesh dripping off of the bones, the skin completely burned off. In the skull, you could see an evil mind throbbing.
"He's still not dead yet?" asked Number Seven.
I rolled off the car I had been lying, on, and pausing a moment to collect myself and force away the pain, I rushed forward to my companions.
I knelt down beside them, the monster still approaching.
"He can still move?" asked Number Seven.
"Even though his body is destroyed," I said, "his mind and will are still in control." It's not easy to destroy a very powerful demon.
I ran forward toward the abomination, and threw one hooking punch at it. Its head just rolled back a little. I threw another punch. And another. On my fourth, the thing caught my wrist and squeezed it with a strength twice that of any man I'd ever encountered. I could feel the bones in my arm cracking, and I let out a little groan of pain as I struggled to free myself. The demon was squeezing so hard my hand was twitching as muscles in it spasmed.
It lashed out with its other arm, catching me in the side of the mouth, and my head turned back from the amazing force of the punch, blood spewing from my mouth. Then it grabbed the top of my coat, and literally ripped it off, then spun me toward it, letting go of my wrist to wrap its arm around my neck. It immediately contorted all the bones in its body, first wrapping its ribs around my chest, then its arms around mine, then its legs.
It immediately began to make me start to walk forward. "He's controlling me," I warned as I struggled against its will.
"Let me help you," said Tung, rushing forward.
"Don't come near me!" I warned, still struggling to not go forward.
She didn't listen and came forward, trying to free me. The demon forced me to swing out in a hooking punch to my sister's face. It missed as she ducked, but the next one with our other hands connected, forcing her backward, in a mirror image of my former reaction to the demon's punch. We continued and punched her in the stomach, forcing her to bend over.
"I can't control myself!" I said, as we lashed out with another connecting punch to the mouth. We punched her two more times, the last forcing her back a few steps. We had advanced to the car I whose windows I had shattered when I fell, and I wrapped our arms around the frame in the middle. "You have to go now. Go!" The demon struggled against me. "Take Number Seven and go!"
She finally stepped backward and helped Number Seven up, and they headed toward an elevator on the outside of a tall building.
The demon dislodged our arms, reaching out for the mirror with our left arms, and in desperation I grabbed for the door with our right arms. The thing laughed, as it pulled harder and the car door bent to a ninety-degree angle to the rest before it managed to break my grip.
We ran forward to the building Number Seven and Tung were rushing up, and we began to run up the side, like a spider.
The other two had reached the end of the elevator and now had ladders to contend with.
"Hurry!" I yelled at them. We reached the top, a few yards away from where they came up the last ladder. I began to struggle with the beast once more, but he eventually won, and we jumped down from the ledge we were standing on.
We landed just behind Number Seven, and we turned her around and punched her twice in the stomach. Tung forced us away from her, so we swung a hook at her that forced her into the air because it was so powerful. She hit the ground and shook her head, dizzy from the shock.
The demon forced my hand out, and I struggled, so this time he forced it over to the side. It hit the concrete ledge of the building's roof, and I felt a crack. I threw my head back and screamed in pain.
"Ching," Tung said in desperation.
"Don't let me hit you again!" I replied.
Number Seven yelled obscenities at the demon and ran forward, grabbing its head and beating on it with hers, trying to hurt it somehow.
We reached back with our right arm and punched her in the stomach. I yelled, "Go!" as she stumbled back.
The demon began to constrict its ribs. I felt mine begin to crack under the pressure. It squeezed harder and I twisted my head in pain, spitting more blood across the rooftop. Tung rushed behind me as I struggle to breathe and grabbed the demon's ribs, attempting to pull them away. She succeeded for a moment, then lost her grip. She continued to try, pulling with all her might against the monster's unnatural strength.
It soon became irritated and switched tactics, reversing the direction of its pushing and stabbing Tung in the stomach with one side of ribs. I heard her hiss of pain behind me.
Then, another thing invaded my head. *China must not be without an emperor.*
"He wants to control my mind," I told Tung, giving up on my chances of survival. "Go!"
"We'll die together!" she said, still as stubborn as ever.
"I'm already very happy to see you again." I flung my arms to the side, breaking her grip. "I can't take it anymore!" I ran toward the edge of the roof.
"Number Three!" protested Number Seven.
I flung myself off the roof, my sister and Number Seven's screams faintly heard behind me.
"Old monster," I declared, falling, "I'll die before I let you win!"
*China must not be without an emperor.*
I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the scenes passing through it. The Number Eights declaring the very same thing. The statues on the pillars.
My back impacted with something very hard, but it gave, and we continued falling, pieces of a metal balcony following us.
Then I saw what else had fallen. It was a group of flowers, dislodged from even the pot they had been in.
I fought against the mind control, remembering. The butterfly
...the flowers...
*China must not be without an emperor.* repeated the demon, trying to regain its control.
"The past is not important," said my sister. "What's important is the present!" I saw her dangling from the cliff, not willing to let me fall.
*China must not be without an emperor.* It began to regain its control, invoking images of its old, almost human form, while I struggled to keep my sister.
*China must not be without an emperor.* I saw the little boys who would become Number Nines, eating the human carcasses. The demon.
We continued to fall.
I screamed as I heard your voice.
"Can we watch the flowers bloom together?" I saw them, then you lying dead on the floor. I latched on to your image. I could feel the demon's distress.
"Doctor!" I screamed. I heard an explosion behind my head, and all the pressure was suddenly gone. The bones of the demon lost their grip and fell.
I continued to fall.
The bones hit the ground and shattered, the mind and every part of the body of the demon destroyed.
I felt that I was floating; in a trance. I no longer thought, I just was. An extraordinary sense of freedom permeated my soul. I felt the wind on my back, not nearly as harsh as before.
There was a slight pressure around my wrist, and I felt my direction shifting.
My left side smacked against a hard surface, one that wasn't the ground.
"Ching." I woke from my trance and looked up to see my sister, once again dangling from a rope, holding my wrist, not willing to let me fall. "You're not going to die!" she declared.
"Hey, please save your chatting for later!" yelled Number Seven, who was bracing herself against a tower, struggling to hold onto the rope. "Otherwise, I'll be the one to die!"
We smiled at each other and began the long climb up.
At the top, we held a small celebration at the demon's defeat, but soon felt an overwhelming exhaustion, the adrenaline having worn off. We were all badly injured, and we took the ladders down to the ground very slowly. It was still smoking and misting from the wreckage we had caused.
I walked by Tung, examining my arm. It was almost certainly cracked, I decided, as Tung stumbled, from the gash in her stomach.
I grabbed her arm to help hold her up, then something dawned on me.
"Where's Number Seven?" I hadn't seen her since we had reached the ground.
"Here, put these on!" Number Seven came running from the side of the street. She was carrying a bundle of grayish navy cloths. "We don't want to look too shabby when the reporters come." She handed one to both of us. We laughed at her suggestion. Her face was almost brown with dirt. I had blood running down my neck, and both Tung and I had some dried stains from blood that dripped out of our mouth.
"Come on," she urged. "Put them on!" Tung shrugged, and all three of us whipped the huge triangular pieces of fabric around ourselves like cloaks, me being careful to try not to use my nearly broken left arm.
We strode down the street, putting on a show of victory for no one, in a triangular formation; Tung stood in front, while I stood a little behind and to the left, Number Seven, a little behind and to the right. We didn't encounter anyone on the way to Tung's apartment, and we were even quiet enough that her husband didn't even notice us until the morning.
Eighteen of the nineteen missing babies were recovered; only two babies were killed during the entire adventure. The police took partial credit for the recovery, Inspector Lau dubbing us the Heroic Trio. And we were esteemed heroes, even if we caused the city a lot of money to repair that block we had basically destroyed.
But none of that could ever have made up for you.