After spending a year bouncing between the Arcobaleno and the Wo Hop To, Fon can really feel the clock ticking. His original estimate of Luce's pregnancy was off, because it's only now that she's beginning to show. But there is another – more important – clock ticking down than the one to their Curse. Mei's eighteenth birthday. Once that hits, the Triad is going to try and exert more control, maybe even marry her off. It won't work. Mei would rebel. And because Fon wasn't around often enough to use as a proxy, her punishments would be increasingly painful.
So Fon prepared.
Paying Viper to make several, bulletproof identities for Mei was easy. The price for no one ever finding out was higher, but there was almost nothing Fon wasn't willing to pay. The martial artist did manage to negotiate it down to the contents of one of his bank accounts and two favors – so long as there was no harm to children involved.
The next step was a little more complicated. Mei was good, but now that Fon had access to the Best in the World, he didn't want to take any chances. Lal and Colonello are really the only choice for this. Luce is pregnant, and Fon doesn't trust her people. Verde – no, just no. Skull doesn't have any experience in stealth extractions beyond missions with the Arcobaleno. Viper would piss Mei off, and Mei would probably take it out on Fon later.
Renato… would end poorly. He'd try to flirt with Mei, and she'd try to kill him for it. And Mei is good enough that Renato would actually have to harm her to make her stop.
So Fon arranges to have lunch with Lal and Colonello. When they've settled in to the private booth and the waiter has left, Fon pulls out a picture. He has a surprising amount of them – Sifu has serious ninja-skills with a camera. This one is recent, though. He and Mei, side-by-side in the kitchen, making dinner. They're both smiling and they're resemblance is obvious.
"Could you get her out of the Wo Hop To compound without being noticed?"
"Easy. Do you want her hidden, or set up somewhere safe?" Lal is coolly confident as always.
"Just get her as far as you can. She'll have access to money and identities, and she can take care of herself from there."
Fon spends the next few minutes explaining the layout of the Wo Hop To compound and the usual guard rotation, before finishing off with saying that he'll have her ready to go at two in the morning on a date that he doesn't tell them is her birthday.
"Just one more thing. Who is she, kora?" Colonello can't help but ask, even as Lal elbows him.
"My little sister."
He can tell they have more personal questions, but they're too professional to ask them.
All that's left to do is wait. Wait and pack.
They never talk, when they're inside the compound. Only when they're left alone in the empty warehouse Fon trains his Flames in. But they don't have the opportunity to go there. The Wo Hop To may think Fon has submitted to their shackles, but they know in their hearts that Mei isn't. In the Wo Hop To, the eighteenth birthday is a turning point: new responsibilities to the Triad, new expectations for the family, new (supposed) freedoms as an adult.
Having her escape on her birthday is symbolic, and necessary. It is symbolically spitting in their face and saying that she won't be a part of this any longer. It is necessary because the Red Poles (enforcers) on down to the Blue Lanterns (the uninitiated members) will see her escape as a child growing up and leaving to find their own way. If Mei waited till she was older, not only would they try to tie her further into the Triad, but they would eventually decide that formally inducting her as a member would be the only way to do it. Then everyone would see it as a betrayal from one of their own. At that point, they wouldn't let her leave unless she slaughtered her way out.
Mei knows that Fon has arranged her escape for a very close point in the future. She just doesn't know any details. Fon knows she has a packed bad hidden in the ceiling of their room (they had never moved into separate rooms). He had already sewn cash and identities into the lining of the bag and a few of the clothes. Mei knows how to access the (many) bank accounts and stashes he's set up for her. Some are tied to the identities, some are joint accounts both of them can access, and a few are arranged so only she can get to them.
Fon doesn't bother to sleep that night, but he tells Mei to. She doesn't question him, but she is incredibly un-amused and Fon knows for a fact that she's going to make him pay for it. The Storm wistfully hopes that it will be soon.
At 1:45 am Fon feels the approach of Flames he has become remarkably familiar with. And that is the only reason he knows they're there; Lal and Colonello are professionals. If Fon wasn't specifically looking for them and know them as well as he does, he would never notice.
They appear at the window like ghosts. Mei wakes at the air displacement. A moment of pride and a wave of sadness pass through him almost simultaneously. She is so very talented, and wants more than anything in the world for her to use that talent as she wishes. To have honed that talent for something other than killing. But Fon can't change the past. He can only change her future.
(But is it really changing anything, when he knows she gets free?)
(Or would she? Hibari Kyouya had seemed very alone in Namimori.)
They don't need to speak. Fon grabs her bag from where she hid it as she pulls on a pair of combat boots. He nods at Lal and Colonello, and hugs his sister tight.
Fon doesn't cry, but his eyes do water a little bit as he looks at Mei: already standing strong with her freedom in reach.
She leaves. Fon locks his feeling of loss in The Box, and enters deep meditation.
It's a good thing that he does. There are a noticeably high number of cancerous cells in him. They shouldn't be that high. It's only been two years since he Disintegrated them; Fon is supposed to have three years. Nothing really has changed. He hasn't changed his diet or sleep habits, he still gets regular exercise (and injuries that Renato has been kind enough to heal).
Injuries. Sun Flames. Activation.
Sun Flames Activate the natural healing process on a concentrated level. Healing relies on the production and multiplication of new cells. They probably Activated the production of the leukemia cells as well.
Using Concentrated Poison Disintegration takes up the rest of his night.
When morning comes, he goes about his day as normal: helping in the kitchens and beating his would-be rival to a pulp in the name of training. They don't immediately notice that Mei is missing. It's a fairly large compound, and no one thinks too much of the scary girl wanting a little time to herself on her birthday.
They definitely notice by dinner. They question Fon extensively as to her absence, but Fon maintains that he has no idea where she is. It's even true.
Fon gets brought before the Mountain Master two days later.
Everyone is absolutely certain he helped her disappear, but no one can prove it. It gets him the worst punishment he's ever experienced. Fon doesn't strictly remember it. At some point his head just switched off and it was someone else screaming and crying. He didn't pass out though. They wouldn't allow it.
All Fon knows for sure is that he hurts more than he's ever experienced in either life, but none of the damage is permanent. He's too valuable for that. They had to stitch up his back, after, but there's no long-lasting muscle or nerve damage. They had also carefully avoided breaking bones.
Sifu had explained it to him, after Fon had been left in his care.
It's worth it. Everything is worth it.
Mei is safe now. Someday, she'll have a child who will help save the world. Until he's old enough, Fon just has to maintain the status quo.
