Chapter Text
Lu Guang steadied himself, took a deep breath, and walked out from behind the partition. He held his arms away from his sides and slowly turned around, keeping his face neutral as his captor applauded.
“It’s perfect! I knew it would be!” Zhen Wuying rushed up to him, tugging at the Rin costume to settle one piece or another in place. “See? I knew it was made for you.”
He was cooperating for now, if only to save himself the pain of another fight. It seemed better to compromise and just put the damn costume on than to risk serious injury by resisting at this point. So he’d let Zhen Wuying march him to another room, which was laid out like a photo studio, and changed into the costume to keep the man happy. If he cooperated like this, he had a better chance of finding a way to escape than if he kept fighting with his captor.
Besides, Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling would know he was missing. They’d find him.
“Oh, you have no idea what this means to me,” the other man gushed. “I’ve been working on this for six years now. Gehenna is going to put Dawnstar back on the map, and you’re just what we needed.”
He ushered Lu Guang in front of a generic-looking fantasy backdrop—a European castle in the distance beyond a set of rolling hills—and held his phone up like a camera. “Now, give me a heroic pose!”
…
Cheng Xiaoshi shot to his feet when Captain Xiao entered the sunroom, Qiao Ling on his heels. “Well?”
The captain shook his head. “As far as we’re concerned, we’re not having any luck tracking him down yet. Zhen’s a common last name, and we couldn’t pull his plates from the security cameras around the club or the event center.”
“But?” he prompted, seeing the man hesitate.
“I’ve got this new kid. Just transferred to my department. She’s some kind of computer genius...found a Zhen Wuying with a private Weibo account, and she managed to hack into it.”
“And?”
In reply, Captain Xiao pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket. “We’re not sure when they were taken, but that’s Lu Guang.”
Cheng Xiaoshi’s hands were shaking as he opened the envelope. Qiao Ling came up next to him, leaning her arm against his in a show of support.
“She thinks these are the first he took,” the captain explained gently. “There’s...it gets worse.”
“Worse like how?” Cheng Xiaoshi asked. The pictures were bad enough...Lu Guang in an unfamiliar costume, with bruises on his face and neck, striking an awkward pose. Cradling his arm to his chest. Flinching back from the bright flash of the camera.
He glanced up when the captain didn’t explain. “He’s hurt,” Cheng Xiaoshi stated, his stomach sinking when Captain Xiao didn’t reply. “Let me see.”
“You don’t need to see those,” Captain Xiao replied. “Trust me, kid...it’s better if you don’t.”
That just made his imagination run even worse. What was Zhen Wuying doing to Lu Guang? Beating him? Starving him? He’d been missing for almost two days now. A lot could happen to a person in two days.
“Cheng Xiaoshi?” Qiao Ling’s hand on his arm pulled him back to reality. “You want him to dive into the picture?” she asked the captain.
Captain Xiao nodded. “I know you can’t change anything, but if you could get us a location. Something. It’ll be hard to see your friend there and not be able to save him, but you could let him know we’re coming.”
“Right.” Cheng Xiaoshi flipped back to the first picture, the one with Lu Guang in the awkward pose. “Let’s do this.”
…
The camera clicked. Zhen Wuying froze.
Lu Guang stared at the man. “Is that all?”
Zhen Wuying’s eyes were yellow.
“Lu Guang.” He rushed forward, catching Lu Guang by both arms and looking him up and down. “Are you hurt? What’s this bastard been doing to you?”
“I’m fine,” he replied, pushing Cheng Xiaoshi—in Zhen Wuying’s body—away. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to know where you are,” he replied. “An address. Anything. Do you know anything?”
Lu Guang shook his head. “I was drugged. I haven’t really seen any windows in this place.”
“Front door? Back door?”
“How long have I been gone?” he cut in.
Cheng Xiaoshi hesitated. He suddenly tugged Lu Guang in, wrapping his arms around him. “It’s been two days for me,” he replied, his voice shaking. “They found...they found these pictures. You’re still alive, so we’re not breaking anything, but...it’s gonna get worse.”
He nodded. He’d suspected that Zhen Wuying’s unhinged behavior would only destabilize further. “I’m okay. Cheng Xiaoshi, I’m okay.”
“I know. I just...I miss you.”
Lu Guang patted his friend’s back, giving him a few extra seconds of contact before pushing him away. “He might have something, but you shouldn’t stay long.”
Cheng Xiaoshi was already shaking his head. “I can’t leave you here.”
“You have to.”
“What if we just ran and like, hid you for two days? It worked with Xu Shanshan.”
“You said he has pictures. That was the first one he’s taken. If we do anything else, we break the timeline.”
Cheng Xiaoshi’s shoulders slumped. “He’s going to hurt you.”
“I’ll be okay. I know you’re going to find me.”
There were tears in his eyes now. Seeing Cheng Xiaoshi’s expressions on Zhen Wuying’s face might have been comical, had the situation not been so dire...but there was no time to reflect on that now.
“You’re going to find me,” Lu Guang repeated. “Let’s make sure you can do that.”
…
Cheng Xiaoshi reappeared in his own body, and immediately stalked away from the others. He felt sick...seeing Lu Guang in that stupid costume with the stupid bruises on his stupid face had been bad enough. But then his friend had to be all calm and self-assured, like Cheng Xiaoshi was the one who’d been kidnapped.
“Did you get it.”
“Yeah.” He managed to rattle off the address for the captain. “But I’m coming with you.”
“You’re going to the hospital,” Captain Xiao replied. “We’ll bring Lu Guang to you.” He rested a hand on Cheng Xiaoshi’s shoulder and squeezed it. “Trust us with this, all right? We’ll bring him back to you.”
He nodded jerkily. “Just find him, okay?”
“We will.”
…
“No, no, no!” Zhen Wuying strode forward impatiently, grabbing for Lu Guang’s wrist.
Lu Guang tried not to flinch away as he was manhandled into another position, Zhen Wuying’s fingers digging into the bruises he’d left the day before.
Two days had passed in a crawl. He hadn’t been allowed to bathe, had barely been given anything to eat, and Zhen Wuying had only grown more violent. Lu Gung bore bruises up his side and across his back, plus a series of shallow cuts across his chest and stomach. All for Zhen Wuying’s “artistic” vision.
“Like this...why are you being so difficult?”
He’d cooperated until he couldn’t stomach it anymore. The costume changes. The poses. Listening to Zhen Wuying’s increasingly unhinged rants about how the world had let him down. How Dawnstar was supposed to be some great success. How he was going to resurrect it from the dead.
A harsh backhand across the face nearly sent Lu Guang stumbling. “Why are you ruining this for me?” Zhen Wuying demanded. “You finally agreed to help me, only to try to ruin every take. Why did you even come here if you’re going to act like this?”
Lu Guang yanked his arm out of the man’s grip. “I didn’t choose to come here,” he snapped.
Two days. It had been two days. They had to be close. They were going to find him.
“Then why are you here?” Zhen Wuying asked, hands on his hips.
“You kidnapped me!”
Zhen Wuying shoved him. “You’re just being difficult,” he snarled. He shoved him again, knocking him into the backdrop. Lu Guang raised an arm to block his next blow, countering with a palm strike to the man’s chest.
Two days. It was time to fight back.
Zhen Wuying swung a wild haymaker at him, which Lu Guang barely managed to duck. He knew he didn’t have the stamina to face the man head-on, so he focused on defending himself. Blocking attacks. Striking back when he had an opening. He dodged a kick aimed at his knee, but couldn’t block the next couple of blows in time. Zhen Wuying managed to wrap him in a grapple and knock him to the floor, kneeling over him to rain punches down on his head and chest.
Lu Guang tried to bring up his arms to protect himself, but his ears were ringing and his head felt light. He twisted away and Zhen Wuying caught the back of his costume. It tore away, the cheap material failing, and Zhen Wuying gave a cry of rage.
Something snapped across Lu Guang’s back, causing his arms to collapse from the sudden burst of pain. He craned his neck around to see Zhen Wuying swinging an extension cord at him, and managed to cover his head before it could hit. It lashed against his forearm, leaving painful welts behind.
“Why are you ruining everything?” Zhen Wuying screeched. “You were supposed to help me! We were going to bring Gehenna back to life!” He punctuated his sentences with wild blows from the extension cord. Many of them missed, but the ones that hit left Lu Guang weak from the pain.
He barely noticed the crash of a door being kicked in, or the thunder of boots in the hall. Someone finally hauled Zhen Wuying off of him, and Captain Xiao was kneeling beside him, resting a hand on his shoulders to keep him from moving.
“We’ve got you, kid,” the captain said. “Just hang tight. We’ll have you out of here in a second.”
…
“...so he’s just crazy,” Cheng Xiaoshi finished. “He just latched onto you and decided to make that his whole personality.”
Lu Guang grunted. He’d been released from the hospital with orders to rest, and was reclining on the couch in the sunroom surrounded by all the pillows they owned (and more). “And the photos?”
“They’re evidence, so they’re locked away somewhere,” Qiao Ling replied. She pressed a motherly hand to his forehead—even though didn’t have a fever—and didn’t pull away until she was satisfied. “Do you need anything? More water? Tea?”
There were already several glasses and dishes on their table, from Qiao Ling and Cheng Xiaoshi’s (overenthusiastic) attempts at nursing him back to health. Not that he didn’t appreciate it, but he didn’t need another glass of water or cup of tea or bowl of anything.
He hadn’t realized he’d started to doze until someone pulled a blanket over him. Cheng Xiaoshi managed to wiggle his way onto the couch and nudge Lu Guang around until his head was resting on his leg, and Qiao Ling settled on the floor in front of them, close enough that if he stuck his hand out he’d touch the back of her shirt.
“It’s movie time,” Qiao Ling announced. “Any requests?”
“Hey, I think that old Iron Fist movie is on.”
The words jarred a memory loose in Lu Guang’s head. Zhen Wuying, holding up that costume. Eyeing Lu Guang like he was nothing more than a mannequin to dress up and pose as he saw fit. “Maybe not,” he suggested.
Cheng Xiaoshi gently patted his head. “No problem—hey, is that Volcano Turtle Vs the Sirens of Neptune?”
“Oh, we have to watch that one,” Qiao Ling said. “Remember the one with the big spider on the moon? You had nightmares for weeks.”
“I had one nightmare. One. And that’s because you kept chasing me around with that rubber spider.”
The familiar sound of his two friends bickering washed over Lu Guang, pulling his focus away from the movie.
But that was fine. He was safe, and he was home, and Gehenna was nowhere to be seen.