February 27th: Final - 300 words - The time is now, the day is here. The final confrontation with the big bad. Who will be left standing in the end?
When they finally left the depths of the cave, the it was mid-morning with the sun shining directly through the hole Tien's Kikoho had created in the ceiling. Without speaking, Chiaotzu hooked his hands beneath Tien's armpits and lifted off the floor. Flying them up into the open air. Below, the dust of Tao's body had dispersed on the wind, not—as Chiaotzu had half expected—collected in a smoking pile of ash. There was, however, one small fragment of his body. A hand, still curled in the grip that had tightened around Chiaotzu's arm, metal already tarnished by the sand. They stood on the stone and looked at it together, huddling together against the wind that flurried dirt in tiny whirlwinds.
"He's going to kill us," Tien said. Softly and matter-of-factly. But his hand clamped tight around Chiaotzu's, and a fine tremor shivered in his fingers. "He's never going to leave us alone. Not after this."
Chiaotzu nodded. "Tien…how would you feel if we needed to…" sHis voice faltered and died away, congealing in a lump in his throat.
"If we need to kill him first," Tien said flatly. When he turned his face to Chiaotzu, tears were already streaking down his face, three thin tracks cut cleanly through the dust smeared there. "I don't know, I can't…I can't imagine it."
There was a long silence where they considered it. Killing Tao had been, maybe not self defence but certainly defence of family. Chiaotzu knew that if he had come into the light and seen Tien caught with a knife to his throat he would have responded with a blast of his own without even thinking. Maybe that would have reduced Tao to dust, maybe it wouldn't have. But there was zero doubt in Chiaotzu's mind that he would not have held back for fear of killing him.
"We could run," he said eventually. "Take Ino and head off again. I hear Mifan is big and easy to get lost in."
Tien shook his head. "I don't want to spend my whole life running. Constantly looking over my shoulder. That's no way to live. No way to thrive."
The words he'd said to Shen, when he had thought he was clear and safe, floated across Chiaotzu's mind. We have and will thrive. Had Tien heard him? Surely not. He was right though. If they ran, Shen would hunt them. And Chiaotzu didn't want to spend the rest of his life as a fugitive.
Their thoughts were interrupted by a thin, shrill scream. Carried on the wind, it drifted over them like razor wire. Instantly alert, they turned towards the origin of the noise, the link of their hands clamping tight. "Papaya," Chiaotzu said. "She's alive. I have to save her."
"We have to," Tien said, stubbornly. "I'm not letting you go without me."
"It's not safe," Chiaotzu said. He put his hands on Tien's shoulder, pulling so they were facing each other. "He's going to expect you. Look me in the eye and tell me that you won't crumble if he puts pressure on you. Because he will. And if he does and you can't take it, I won't be able to protect you."
Tien's eyes dropped, shifted to the left, narrowed, then flicked up to meet Chiaotzu's. There was fear there, a shark circling beneath murky water, and a terrible knowing. "If you go alone he'll kill you." His shoulders pushed back beneath Chiaotzu's hands, his chin lifting. The fear swam deeper. Almost completely hidden now. There was no hesitation, his gaze not flinching away from Chiaotzu's as he said, "I'm going. He can push me however he wants, I won't fold."
Relieved, suddenly aware of how much he needed Tien at his side for this confrontation, Chiaotzu pulled him close and hugged him tight. Tien awkwardly patted Chiaotzu's back. Ino trotted out of the depths of the cave and pushed his nose between them, eyes shining with joy.
"You stay here, Ino," Chiaotzu said. "We'll come back for you."
Before he vanished back into the darkness, Ino gave them both a snuffly lick to their cheeks, Tien laughing and lifting his hand to try and fend off the enthusiastic affection. Then Chiaotzu hooked his hands beneath Tien's armpits again and lifted off the ground, flying slowly and carefully into town. It was silent now, a heavy silence that draped thickly against the curbs and over awnings like drifts of snow. Muffling their steps as they approached Papaya's shop for the third time in two days.
Inside, Shen was standing behind the counter, a parody of a doting shopkeep. His right hand was splayed on the glass countertop, a smear of blood where the stump of his left wrist rested gingerly, a sickeningly sweet smile on his wrinkled face. The lanterns were unshuttered, bright steady flames illuminating even the darkest corners of the shop. Papaya was curled up against a display cabinet of chef's knives, wide hazy eyes following their entry into the room. Unnervingly silent. Without a word, Tien went to her, putting his hand on her shoulder and ducking down so her eyes met his. Murmuring soft words of encouragement that Chiaotzu couldn't make out as he stood beneath Shen's venomous gaze.
"Welcome, boys, what can I do for you?" Shen asked, brandishing the bloody stump of his left hand. The bandage was soaked through, and as Chiaotzu watched a drop of brilliant crimson fell onto the countertop. He was still bleeding. How was that possible? "I don't suppose you saw my brother on your way in? I'm expecting him back."
"Tao is dead," Chiaotzu said flatly. "He attacked us and we killed him."
Another wave of his stump. Chiaotzu's stomach twisted as more blood splattered onto the counter. "Death is nothing to a god, whelp. I've brought him back before and I'll do it again."
"There's nothing to bring back," Chiaotzu insisted. Then, with a furious little spark beneath his words, "You taught Tien the Kikoho. You monster." From the corner of his eye he saw Tien flinch, his shoulders drawing up and together, his head ducking low.
A flicker of something, deep in the shadowed recesses of Shen's eyes. Guilt? Regret? And perhaps the slightest hint of sorrow. Emotions that Chiaotzu had never seen on Shen's face before.
"The Kikoho reduced him to dust. Tao cannot come back. And if you force our hand, there will be no one to bring you back either." Chiaotzu kept his voice low and flat. Trying to avoid any spikes of emotion. The way Shen had taught him to suppress all of his expression in years past. He must be proud. "We don't want to kill you, Shen. We just want to live. And be free."
The guilt, if it had been guilt, was gone. In its place was a blank, detached fury. "I own you." Eyes shifting in deep sockets, glinting light giving away their path as they landed on Tien. "Both of you."
Tien shuddered violently, his hand digging into Papaya's shoulder in a spasm. Despite the ferocity of the movement, the way his fingers sunk deep into the muscle above her collarbone, Papaya only blinked slowly at him and tilted her head in a confused little movement. Without realising he was doing it, Chiaotzu stepped to the side, between Tien and Shen, keeping his face blank and his gaze steady.
That fury was landing in Shen's body now. Chiaotzu could follow its path, in the twitching of his muscles, the lifting of his shoulders. Like a horde of mosquitos, buzzing, alighting and biting in a terrible swarm. In a fluid movement, Shen lunged over the desk. But his grasping hand slipped by as Chiaotzu stepped aside again. Grabbed Shen's wrist with both hands. Locked his elbow around the pronounced bony carpals. There was a brief moment where he thought that he'd stopped him, before blinding pain burst through the side of his head. Vision blurring and dissolving into swimming black dots. Vaguely aware of heat splattering on his cheek, neck, chest. Limbs loosening, arms falling to his sides and knees buckling. Slumping to the floor.
"Chiaotzu!" Tien's voice drifted into his head from far away, the fear and horror enough to keep Chiaotzu from slipping completely into unconsciousness.
Forcing his eyes open against the heavy weight, one eyelid fluttering with the blood that was laced in his lashes, Chiaotzu glared at Shen. The pain in the side of his head dulled to a heavy throb, pulsing in time with his heart. Then Tien was beside him, an icy hand landing on his shoulder and squeezing, stabilising. Bringing him back to earth. Out of the red fog that clouded close. He covered Tien's hand with his own, suddenly aware of how hot his own skin was, how hot the blood on his face was, how hot the room was. If he wasn't careful, he would suffocate in that heat.
"So touching," Shen said flatly. His eyes were flat too, like glass. Totally emotionless, totally lifeless. The fluctuations of emotion had now dipped into an almost catatonic mask settling over his features. As his eyes shifted towards Tien, the light seemed to be sucked into them. "I should have killed you instead of just taking your arm."
Tien's hand clamped down tight on Chiaotzu's shoulder. Anger spiked, a protective rage, and Chiaotzu bared his teeth in a snarl, "Shut up, Shen."
"Make me." Shen tilted his head and smiled an eerie, empty smile. "You won't kill me, Chiaotzu. You're too weak."
Chiaotzu could feel anger coil tight in Tien, a finger tightening on a trigger, and squeezed the icy hand on his shoulder. The touch of his mind made Tien jolt, and he telepathically murmured a single word, Don't.
When he focussed back completely on Shen, there was a ball of ki glowing in the palm of his hand. Red and crackling. As though he had gathered all his hatred and anger in a fixed point. It was not an attack that Chiaotzu recognised. Whether this was because it was one he'd never been taught, or because it was without name: an instinctual attack like his own telekinesis. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. The ball of malevolence leaving Shen's palm, lip curling in an animal snarl. A soft sobbing breath from beside him as Tien tried to react. Aware of the lump of a scream rising in his throat and wondering if there was time for it to break free to ring through the air.
Acting on total instinct, he flung out both hands. One towards Tien, where a band of energy wrapped tight around him and pushed him away. The other in front. A sweeping motion. Lifting walls of crackling blue so intense he couldn't see through them. Through the electric fizz, he vaguely heard a furious scream ricocheting off the walls, rising in a hoarse crescendo until it cut off abruptly.
Chiaotzu froze in place, his eyes wide and brimming with tears. Not even noticing the sharp pain as his telepathy was first struck, then cut through in three rough slices. He only jolted back into his own mind when Tien hit him hard from the side, his arms wrapping tight around him.
Tien's voice was a low constant murmur, the susurration of a familiar stream. "Put it down, Chiaotzu. You can let go. It's okay."
Trembling fingers curling back into his palm. The rush of heat in his core as the glimmering energy flickered and returned to him. Knees buckling. Crumbling under a wave of lightheaded fog.
Tien caught him. Of course he did. With his arms already around Chiaotzu, it was just a matter of tightening his grip. Pulling Chiaotzu against his narrow chest.
It felt like Chiaotzu's face was numb, the muscles slow and unresponsive. It was an effort to get the word out, and even when he managed it was muffled and slurred. "Sh-Shen?"
But he didn't need to ask. With his barrier gone, he could see the cracked and melted counter, and the sprawled, twisted husk of their former master. Flesh torn and smoking. Ripped apart. His malevolence had rebounded from Chiaotzu's barrier and crushed the life out of him.
"S'over?" he asked, and started to cry.
"Yes." Tears lay heavy in Tien's voice too. The two of them clung together, sobbing and laughing and screaming. Overcome with emotion. When Papaya crept from the corner and draped her arms around their shoulders, they turned into her as well. Ino burst into the shop with rolling, mad eyes and fangs bared, only to drop his snarl and nose forward when he saw Shen's body and the three others huddled together. They'd done it. They'd won.
They were together.