Chapter Text
They tell her Wenwu is experiencing terrible migraines.
Maybe he’s thinking too hard about how to fool her to escape. But it’s not likely.
She introduces meds to help with it mixed into his food and water. And a mild sedative.
He has dark bags under his eyes the next time she has him brought out, sitting there, hair damp again, robotically picking up puzzle pieces and not making any progress. He didn’t even bother shaving.
She watches him in her peripheral vision, watches him put the puzzle piece down, watches him slump in his seat, watches him give up on the puzzle and stare at it - he’s never going to finish it before she leaves. Ever. And he knows that too now.
“Do the puzzle or go back into the pit,” she tells him.
“Who am I to you?” he croaks, turning toward her with too bright eyes.
She looks directly at him, and then jerks her head toward the pit. Two sets of hands immediately grab him by each shoulder, dragging him backward, knocking over his chair, and he struggles. He elbows, flails his legs - probably wisened up from the last time he fought, revealing too much - pries at the hands grabbing him.
She walks over and punches him in the solar plexus, then waves for him to be dropped.
He chokes on the floor, hugging himself, trying to take a full breath.
Grabbing him by the neck, she bends, and tells him how it is. He scrabbles at her hand.
“You killed my mother. You broke my family apart. And I’m going to make sure you pay for it the rest of your life.”
He’s too shocked to respond, gasping for breath, staring at her wide eyed, grip slackened.
She drops him and stands back, savoring the moment, watching him splayed on the floor. She’s wanted to say that, for longer than she can remember.
“I don’t - I don’t -“ he trails off.
“You don’t what? Remember? Does it matter if you do or not? A murderer is a murderer. I don’t care if you remember or not.”
There. She finally says it. He’s probably actually amnesiac, but she really doesn’t care what the truth is. Telling herself that he’s faking his memory loss was a lie from the beginning, and she’s going to stop lying to herself to justify this.
She wants this. Plain and simple. And she has the power to have it done how she wants.
“You’re lying,” he whispers, starting to hyperventilate.
“Oh?”
“You’re lying, you’re lying, YOU’RE LYING!” he covers his ears with his hands.
“Tell that to yourself in the pit. You don’t even believe yourself.”
He crawls away as fast as he’s able, still winded from her punch, and her guards grab him again and drag him. He leaves long scratches down on one of the guards’ forearms.
He clings onto whatever surface he can, doing his best to slow the inevitable, refusing to accept that he’s a toy she keeps in its box until she’s in the mood to take him out.
And then.
She doesn’t know how it happened.
But there’s a red smear down one of the pit’s walls, and Wenwu is at the bottom, and he’s quiet.
Unresponsive. Unconscious.
She gets out of her car, and sighs, before straightening her clothes and walking through the gates toward the temple.
It’s a rough replica of the one in Ta Lo, but holds only her mother’s plaque within. Her mother’s plaque, and the black clad figure sat cross legged on a pad in front. Exact replicas of his ten rings decorate his forearms.
Wenwu barely reacts when her footsteps echo, aside from tightening his knuckles.
“Dad.”
He opens his eyes.
“Here to stop me?” he says, turning his head slightly toward her.
She walks up, and lights more incense for her mother, then sits down on the pad beside his.
He continues staring up at Ying Li’s portrait, but his shoulders relax.
After a brief peace, he rises.
“I will bring her back soon.”
And he walks out one side of the temple.
She waits. She’s started using this time for meditation, and the maze outside is just long large enough that she can get some time to really clear her mind and relax. And it’s good, she supposes, to spend this time with her mother as well. She misses her, even though it’s been so long, but at least Ying Li has company.
Food arrives on time, arranged on a low table between the two pads, and she waits.
A little bit later than she expected, Wenwu steps back in from the other side of the temple, brushing a leaf off his shoulder pad and pausing when he sees her.
He eyes the spread of food.
“Here to stop me? Poison will not work. And neither will illusions.”
“It’s not poisoned, and I’m not here to stop you. Why don’t we have a meal, as a family? Rescue mom on a full stomach.”
His eyes flicker between her and Ying Li’s portrait.
“Ridiculous,” he says, but sits down anyway. His stomach growls, but he pretends it didn’t happen.
She gives the two of them both time to eat - this is her lunch too, then takes a full bite of shrimp dumpling before she asks, “So what are you planning to do after? Retire?”
He always has interesting answers to this one. She supposes it depends on his mood when she asks.
He finishes chewing before answering.
“It depends what your mother wishes. But where is your brother? Hiding away somewhere in Ta Lo? Not even here to pay respect to his mother?”
“Maybe he’s waiting to stop you along the way.”
“Hmph. Foolish boy. At least you have the sense to try poison.”
“It’s not poisoned, dad.”
“It makes no difference. I told you, poison will not work.”
She sighs.
“Well, I tried. At least the meal was delicious?”
“Passable. Now will you resist me, or come to your senses and come with me to rescue your mother?”
“If poison didn’t work there’s no point.”
He looks annoyed, but doesn’t say anything. He puts more incense on for Ying Li, and steps out the way he came in again.
When her employees come in to clear the table and remove it, she gets an update - he’s eating well, still refusing to sleep until he either passes out from exhaustion circling the maze time and time again, or they sedate him either through pills or shots, unless they manage to convince him that it’s the night before the assault and that he needs to rest. They’re still working on a good solution for that one. At least he’s easily distracted, and has no long term memory so they have unlimited tries.
But for now, the maze is good enough.
“Keep him occupied tomorrow, I won’t be available, but I will be having dinner with him the day after,” she instructs.
“Got it Boss.”
They replace the incense, extinguish the still burning sticks, and generally rearrange the place to how it was before Wenwu left to break the gate in his memories.
She gets up, dusts off her clothes, and walks back the way she came, and away in her car.
Not exactly what she had in mind when she wanted him to pay for the rest of his life for the death of her mother, but… close enough.
In a way, they all got what they wanted.