A/N: I can't be bothered to think of anything witty. Apart from Woohoo! Over 1000 views! Thank you, people, I feel slightly popular... And yes, I am aware that I'm repeating the last line of the last chapter, but that's just so it flows better.
Disclaimer: See Authors Notes. Also, I own nothing except Na Mei, Sying Long, and the incredibly random plot.
"We can't be having that, now..." Mao paused, smirking. "On the other hand, if you're certain..." He turned to the head soldier. "Kill them. Make sure none of them leave here alive."
Na and Sying shared a look of dull terror. They were hungry, tired, in pain... they could barely find the energy to stand, and now they had to fight? It was almost too much. Na looked back at the approaching soldiers in exasperation. She couldn't do it...
Xun glanced at Na, and saw the bitter signs of resignation in her stance. Shifting his weapon slightly, he reached back until he found her hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze. Although he was still watching the soldiers, he knew her stance had changed, just slightly, but enough to hint at some hope.
The first group of soldiers charged them, and were quickly dealt with with a boomerang throw from Shang Xiang's chakrams. However, even as they crumpled to the ground, there were more and more and more coursing towards them. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. They were surrounded, and in a situation that was looking worse and worse with each soldier that was coursing towards them.
Xun was the first to charge the oncoming army, closely followed by Shang Xiang. Slashing at the nearest soldiers, Xun managed to create a big enough space for him to do a couple of somersaults, incapitating several people in the process, only to have the spaces where they were filled almost immediately. He gritted his teeth, and took out the two soldiers that were nearest him.
On the other side of the square, Shang Xiang was also slashing away at the hapless soldiers. Both Shang Xiang and Xun were careful to stay close to each other, and the twins. Sying had retreated behind Shang Xiang, and was mumbling feverishly, making vague symbols with his hands. He hadn't summoned up this element in a long time...
Only Na hadn't moved. She stood, looking wearily around herself, not quite sure what to do - which meant that she was the first to spot them.
"Archers?" she said to herself. Xun, who had cleared a wide enough space around him to not worry about the soldiers for a minute, glanced at her, before one of the braver soldiers charged him, closely followed by several others. Na limped over to help him beat them off, picking off the soldiers that had crept around behind him.
"Hurry up, already, Sying..." Shang Xiang muttered through gritted teeth as she fought to escape the weapon deadlock she was in. Sying traced a complicated symbol in the air, in which his hands seemed in some undefinable way to pass through each other, gripped his staff, and sent a pure wave of ice energy through the corridor they were in.
Shang Xiang sighed in relief as the soldiers that were surrounding her froze in their tracks.
"Thanks, Sying..." she breathed. Xun and Na said nothing, only working in silent determination to pick off the soldiers still surrounding them. Sying tossed a matted lock off his face, and pulled his sword out of the staff.
Na glanced up to see Sying striding purposefully towards the soldiers that were closest to him. They had only seconds before the soldiers thawed out - seconds to tip the balance between escaping and -
"Ah!"
Na whipped around as Xun collapsed, an arrow buried deep in his shoulder. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shang Xiang and Sying turn. Although Sying's ice wave had instantly frozen everyone in the corridor, that didn't include the archers, who were stood in the hall at the other end of the walkway. All of Na's hope drained away as she watched the young strategist drop to his knees and grab his shoulder.
"Na!"
Na turned, and brought her weapon up just in time to block the clumsy overhead strike from the soldier behind her. Brilliant. Just flipping brilliant. On top of absolutely everything else, the soldiers had unfrozen. A burning rage began to bubble in her stomach, and as the soldiers sword rebounded, she slashed at his neck with her weapon, but even before he realised he was dead, she had killed the three guards standing next to him, as well. The bodies crumpled, but Na took no notice, continuing to slash and stab at the remaining soldiers.
Xun gritted his teeth as pain coursed through his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Na attacking the soldiers - defending him - but he knew that Na was exhausted. Sooner or later, a soldier would catch her off guard, and injure her... Red hot rage began to burn at the thought. The pain, while still very much there, vanished. Reaching with the hand gripping his shoulder, he grabbed hold of the arrow, and pulled it out of his shoulder. Ignoring the fresh wave of pain, he flung the arrow to the ground, and pulled himself to his feet.
Most of the soldiers were concentrated around Na, Sying, and Shang Xiang, but a few noticed him stand up, and ran at him. Without thinking, he sent a ball of pure fire energy in their direction, and ran off to help Na. Just as he reached her, the fireball exploded. All the soldiers near it were killed instantly, and, suddenly, there were a lot less soldiers around. Bodies littered the ground. The archers had vanished - they'd probably ran when they realised they would lose. Only the new recruits, who wouldn't know when it was time to leave if it was written on their eyeballs, stayed.
Somehow, Na and Xun had ended up back to back. There were only around 20 soldiers left surrounding them. Na darted forward, and incapitated several of them, as Xun killed the soldiers that had ran behind her. He turned to his side, and brought his good arm around in a slash that ended with several more collapsing on the ground. Turning back to where the other soldiers had been, he saw them vanishing around the corner. Looking around, he could see that only he, Na, Sying, and Shang Xiang were left.
He blinked. The rage had burnt out, leaving him feeling slightly light-headed. He was also becoming aware of his arm becoming damp. A dribble of warm liquid ran down onto his hand. Raising it to his face, he saw that it looked suspiciously like blood.
"Xun?"
He looked up to see Na watching him, concern etched on her face. A dull ache had settled in his shoulder. Swaying slightly, he raising his other hand and touched the sodden material on his shoulder. He raised his hand to his face, and looked at it. It was slicked with blood - his blood.
"Oh," he said, before his knees buckled, and the encroaching darkness swallowed him.
"Xun!" Tears began to spill down Na's face as she ran over to Xun. Sying carefully sheathed his weapon, before walking over to where Na was kneeling, and placing his arm around her shaking shoulders. In the corner of his sight, he could see Shang Xiang inspecting Xun's injury.
"It looks like he lost a lot of blood... The sooner we can get him to a medic, the better..." she said out loud.
"First we need to get out of here alive." said Sying flatly. He felt drained, both physically, and emotionally. Na's shoulders began to stop shaking. Wiping her face on her sleeve, she looked up. Just for a second, Sying saw her face. There was a glint in her eye that he had never seen before.
"I know the way out." she said, between sniffs, as she stood up. "Shang Xiang, give me a hand with Xun. Sying, grab his weapons."
There was no denying that tone of voice. As the women eased Xun onto their shoulders, Na spoke again.
"Did you come on horses?"
"Yeah - they should be able to carry the four of us." Shang Xiang replied.
"Good. Now let's get out of this sordid place." Na said, shortly. Sying glanced at Shang Xiang worriedly. The new Na was scarily emotionless and distant, but this was no place to object to it. As they hurried through a maze of corridors, they saw no one, but Sying still didn't let down his guard until they were out of there, and untying the horses from their trees. Na swung herself into the saddle of Xun's horse, and helped Shang Xiang place Xun in front of her on the horse. Sying climbed up onto Shang Xiang's horse, and waited for her to join him.
"Let's go." Na said.
They urged the horses in the direction of the Wu camp, and rode off. Sying's mind was a blissful blank as he clung on to Shang Xiang's waist. Weariness was beginning to grip him - it was all he could do to stay awake.
They arrived back at Wu's camp a little over 80 minutes later - with Xun's injury, they couldn't ride as fast as they would like to have done. Slipping through a copse of trees, they rode straight to the medic.
Sying's head jerked up as the horse came to a stop. Shang Xiang jumped down immediately to help Na with Xun, which left him to more or less fall off the horse, and stumble into the tent.
The medic looked up from changing an unlucky soldier's dressing, and gasped as she recognised the unconscious figure. Xun was as pale as a sheet, and his injury was caked in dried blood. As Na and Shang Xiang laid Xun on a spare bed, Sying stumbled in. Shang Xiang turned in time to see Sying trip, and caught him before he fell.
"I'd better get Sying to his tent - are you staying here, Na?" she asked softly. Na simply nodded in reply. Shang Xiang sighed, placed Sying's arm around her neck, and helped him to his tent. Sying blearily looked up at her before focusing on his feet again. He was gently lead to a tent that looked vaguely familiar, but before he could work out what was happening, the weariness pulled him down into blissful sleep.
Somebody was talking, a long way away. The words were all muffled, but the voice seemed strangely familiar. Another voice joined in. This one was familiar, too, but who knew where from. The voices were slowly becoming clearer. Every now and then, a word could be made out. Like, 'and' was a popular one. And 'he'. And, for some reason, 'how'. And then, clearer than the rest, a name.
"Xun!"
Yeah, that's right. That's me. Why are they talking about me?
A sudden stab of pain in his shoulder made Xun groan softly. The voices stopped. And a train of memory crashed into his forebrain.
"Xun, can you hear me?" asked the second voice. Na's voice. Na was there?
Xun opened his eyes, and blinked at the ceiling a few times before focusing on Na. She looked... worried, yet relieved.
"How do you feel?" she asked gently.
"Like someone hit me over the head." he said, before wincing at another stab of pain from his shoulder. "Before stabbing me in the shoulder." Na smiled slightly, as Xun looked around the room. "How did I get here, anyway? I thought we were still camped near Chi Bi."
"As soon as you were well enough, we moved back to the palace. They could look after you better here."
"What - how long was I out for?" he asked, confusedly.
Na hesitated before replying.
"... Six days..." she said, quietly.
"I was really hit that badly?" he asked in dismay, raising his hand to his forehead.
"It - it wasn't so much that... it was more the time it took to get you to a medic from that awful place..."
Xun stared into Na's eyes. The fact that one was blue while the other was brown had long ago ceased to amaze him, and all he saw was the emotional turmoil Na had suffered over the last five days. Although her clothes were washed and mended, although her wounds had been treated, and had started healing, although her hair was now clean and combed, he just knew that she had never left his side throughout his recovery.
"Thank you, Na." he said softly.
"Don't thank me. It's my fault you got injured, anyway. If Cao Cao hadn't captured us, you wouldn't have had to come rescue us. This could all have been avoided if we had stuck to the plan and not rushed on ahead." she said flatly.
"It's not your fault. Did you ask Cao Cao to capture you? Did you ask Cai Mao to set archers on us, so I would get hit? You saved my life just by being there."
"But I endangered it when you came for me!" Na burst out. Tears began to course down her face as all the worry took its toll, and she knelt down next to the bed, burying her head in the bedsheets. Xun gently stroked her hair as he spoke.
"I would have endangered it anyway, if I could stop you from getting hurt. It doesn't matter that I nearly died, as long as you're alright. I would rather be killed to keep you safe than sit around, doing nothing. But... I'm sorry, as well. If I had been keeping my guard up, the arrow wouldn't have hit me, and you wouldn't have had to go through all that worry."
Na looked up, with eyes that were still shining with tears.
"I don't deserve you, do you know that?" she said, blinking to get rid of the tears.
"I don't deserve you." he replied, smiling as he took her hand.
"Xun! You - you're awake!"
Xun looked up to see Shang Xiang coming into the room, closely followed by Sying. Just like Na, his injuries had begun to heal, his clothes had been cleaned and mended, and he had washed his hair. However, while Na still looked quite tired, Sying looked wide awake.
"You took your time waking up!" Shang Xiang told him.
"Sorry," Xun replied, smiling. "It's one of those things you can't help."
"For a while, we thought you weren't going to make it. Even the medic was unsure." Sying said. "But Na was sure you were going to survive. She never left your side, not once."
Xun smiled at Na.
"Oh, that reminds me, Quan wanted to know when you woke up." Shang Xiang interrupted. Xun's smile slipped down a notch.
"Why?"
"I'm not sure. At first, I think he was more angry than worried, but when you didn't wake up..." Shang Xiang paused, before finishing. "I don't know."
Xun fell into a thoughtful silence, only looking up when a gong reverbrated around the castle.
"Was that the dinner gong?" he asked, suddenly aware of how hungry he was.
"Yeah. I'll go down to the kitchens and ask them for some food up here." said Shang, as she walked to the doorway.
"Are you lot going to eat in here, too?" asked Xun.
"Well, we can hardly leave you alone to eat after you just woken up from a serious arrow wound, can we?" said Na.
"Besides, we've got a lot to talk about. You have been out of it for 6 days, after all." added Sying.
"Plus, do you honestly think you can feed yourself when you can hardly move your arm?" Shang Xiang said, as she left the room. "Back in ten minutes!"
"Why am I beginning to get the feeling I don't have a say in this?" Xun asked, as Na and Sying helped him into a sitting position.
"Because you don't." Na replied, smiling. "And because the medic was very clear that you were to rest up as much as possible, and keep your arm totally immobile. The arrow really messed up your shoulder."
"But probably not as much as you did when you ripped it out and carried on fighting. By the way, that was a nice fireball you sent out."
Xun shrugged his good shoulder.
"Fire just comes naturally to me." he said, but not without Na noticing the subtle signals of memory.
Sying nodded.
"Think I'll go and see if Shang Xiang needs a hand in the kitchens." he said, before wandering out of the room.
Xun watched him go.
"I spend a decade avoiding fire, then it turns out to be my natural element." he said, before laughing bitterly, after Sying had gone.
"At least your history is still covered." Na said, quietly.
"And I end up with a matching shoulder scar."
"Don't talk like that!" Na said, taking his hand. "You have to be positive. Please. Your history - that's all it is. History. You can't change it, but it can change you. I know it's hard. My earliest memory - I'm not even sure if it was a dream or not - all it was, was pain, and fear, and darkness. But I let it go. I was positive, and look where I am now. Please, just try - for me, if nothing else."
Xun sighed, staring at his feet.
"I am trying. But it's so damn hard! Your memory - you're not even sure if it was real. But my history is the only thing I'm ever sure of. I thought all the pain, and uncertainty, and fear, was buried and left behind, but it's always with me, and always will be." He sighed again, and shifted his gaze to the wall. "And my arm is going to take well over a year to heal fully. And it'll be over a year of anger, and frustration, and pain. I don't want you to suffer that." He looked into Na's eyes. "It's going to be a long, and hard, and frustrating year. And I don't want to lose you over it."
Na leaned over, and kissed him gently on the lips.
"I'm not going anywhere without you. Face it, you're stuck with me, like it or not." she said, grinning. Xun grinned back.
"I like it." he said, before kissing her again.
A/N: Sorry if it's kinda crappy, it was absolutely perfect the first time I typed it up, but then Fanfiction didn't save it. There we go, a nice corny ending for you soppy people out there. Sorry for the extreme OOCness I've just realised is happening... A bit of LXOC there. No, forget a bit, make it a LOT of LXOC, and a bit of SSXOC. Don't ask about the whole Xunnie vs. the arrow thing... Oh, and when Xun wakes up, the first voice is the medic or someone, and she goes away before he groans or... something... oh, just go away. BUT REVIEW FIRST! Is it really that hard to click the little button and leave a little comment on said crappyness or boringness, or other things? Is it?