Chapter Text
Shang qi stood in the middle of the deserted battlefield in Ta Lo. Bodies scatted, the red cloth that clad them making them stand out in the near darkness. He turned around, desperately looking for a sign on life. There was none.
Katy. Xialing. He couldn’t see them. Due to the quickly darkening sky, he couldn’t recognise any faces as he searched through the array of bodies. The Rings, sensing his anguish lit up and circled around him as he moved from body to body, desperately searching, and hoping that he would not encounter either of them in his search through the bodies.
With each female he approached, his heat quickened. Would he turn over his sister? Or Katy, his closest friend? no she was more than a friend, she was his companion soulmate, she was his family, perhaps more than Xialing was.
His eyes settled on a woman clad in white, he had not seen her for nearly 20 years but it was unmistakable. There was his mother, lying amongst the lifeless bodies. He sprinted over, abandoning his search. How could his mother be here? After all this time had his father been right. It wasn’t possible at all, but his heart filled with an emotion he had not felt since he was a child, hope.
As he reached her side, crouched down and took his face in her hands that hope went away. She was cold, lifeless. He was too late, she was gone again. As he lent back on his heels and looked up at the moon now emerging from the mountains in the distance, sheading an eery and mystic light over the bodies that still sat on the field. He let the tears pool on his face as he watched the moon, not willing to look back at his lifeless mother.
Then a raspy voice filled his ears, like she had woken from a long sleep.
“it’s all your fault.”
Shangqi looked down, and all the tears on his face rained down on his mother, who was now wide awake, although she looked even more pale and gaunt than before.
“You let me die, you could have saved me” She whispered before closing her eyes again.
“媽媽! 媽媽!” (Mum! Mum!) He yelled, shaking her lifeless body. Before he could do anything further, his whole body began to shake.
Then, he was back in his shitty apartment, with Katy hovering over him, her hands still on his shoulders from shaking him awake. She looked relieved as he moved to sit up, noticing his feet where tangled in the sheets, he probably thrashed around during his nightmare.
“Shit Dude, you gave me such a fright. I’m hear peacefully sleeping like we usually do after a night out and then you’re thrashing and yelling in Chinese.” Katy said as she sat back against the headboard, observing him.
“Im ok. Im ok.” He said, almost like he was trying to convise himself. “I was just a nightmare” he said, unconvincingly. Katy had seen the pain in his eyes when he had first woken up, this was not some weird dream, he had been through hell.
“Are you sure, my Chinese is terrible, but I’m pretty sure you just had a nightmare about your Mum. Do you want to talk about it?” She muted softly, as if speaking softly would somehow smooth the horror he had obviously been through.
“I was back on the battle field of Ta Lo. Everyone was dead. I was looking through the bodes for you and Xialing and my mother was there, dead on the ground. Then she woke, and told me It was my fault she was dead.” He didn’t go any further as he doubled over, trying to hide the tears and muffle his sobs.
Katy reached over and pulled the now sobbing Shangqi into a tight embrace. They stayed that way until his sobs had reduced to hiccups. They held tight to each other as he began to talk again.
“This whole trip has just brought back a lot of supressed trauma, you know. I saw my own mother die, I visited the place I grew up in such happiness, then it turned into hell as my father trained me to kill. Then I had to admit to my best friend that I murdered a man. Then to top it all off, I saw my own father die and now I possess the items that corrupted my father in the first place” Shangqi said, now letting go of Katy to sit in front of her
“Shaun… Shangqi” she started, still forgetting and stumbling over his new Chinese name, “Im so sorry you had to go through all that, but you don’t need to do it all alone anymore. You can talk to me, I can help you find a therapist if you want. You don’t need to carry this alone anymore.” She told him, resting her hand on his knee in a sign of support.
“Thank you, Katy. That means the world.” He said, reaching out to hold her hand as she reached to place her other hand on top of his, desperate to connect with him when he was going through so much.
“But there’s one thing that hurt just as much. You stayed. First I told you that I was from a crazy warlord family and you didn’t get on the next plane back to San Francisco as I thought you would. Then you meet my psychopathic father who imprisons us, you find out about another magic dimension and I tell you that I killed a man in cold blood… and you stayed, fought with us and still wanted to me my friend after all that. Your forgiveness and loyalty showed that I don’t deserve you. You are a good person, and I most certainly am not.” he trailed off as tears started to fall again on Katy’s hand on his knee. He looks down and uses the sheet to dab the wet spots off her hand in a gentle caring way.
“Shangqi, you have known me for so long that you know I don’t judge people on who they where in the past. That person who killed that man wasn’t you, it was the piece of your father that he brainwashed into you. You where programmed, that was not you.” She said forcefully, looking into his eyes to make sure the message got through.
“I know you. My Shangqi loves singing ‘A whole new world’ at karaoke, he loves his sweet Air Jordan shoes and most importantly he cares about people, and ive seen that over and over again.” She said, moving her head closer to him, subconsciously trying to imprint her words into his mind.
“As usual, you’re right Katy. I need to find a therapist and work through this.” He took a deep breath. “There are still details that you don’t know, and you deserve the truth, the whole truth. One day, I want to tell you my whole story, my childhood, my defection, and what happened after that. It might surprise you to know that there are some things about this story that even my father doesn’t know.” There is silence for a little while, as they both take in all that has occurred in the last half an hour.
Shangqi broke the silence minutes later with a nervous statement. “I can’t believe I have never said this before, but I love you, Katy.” He whispered.
“I love you to” She whispered back, as they leaned forward so their foreheads touched.
“Also, just call me Shaun, your pronunciation is horrible” He whispered. Katy snorted in laughter.
“Thanks Shaun, I love you” She said softly.
Neither of them said it then, but in hindsight they both agreed this was the turning point in their relationship. They had always loved each other as friends, but that day ignited something knew, un understanding that they were a little more than just friends.