Chapter Text
Xialing has a secret.
Well, she has many secrets, but one of them lies in the master bedroom of the Boss’s living area in the compound, while she herself lives in her old bedroom.
She got her dad back. From Ta Lo. And no one knows but the Ten Rings - those loyal enough to be in the know.
Razorfist is ecstatic, and grateful toward her. And so are some of the Rings members who adored her father, for whatever reason.
And now they are hers to use, helping her stamp her mark into his organization and secure her position as his heir.
Her brother gets the rings, and she gets the Rings. It’s only fair.
He’s a vegetable. Her father, that is. Xu Wenwu, the vegetative, elderly man missing his soul ever since he let out the Soulsucker into the world, and its first victim was him.
He’s not her secret, though. Well, he’s an open secret, because his presence, conscious or not, reinforces her legitimacy.
The secret is the incision on his skull her fingers feel as she runs her hands through his hair, petting him, like she’s soothing a child, like she remembered him petting her, when she was little, and upset, or sick.
The secret is that she had a lobotomy done on him, before they came back to the compound and she assumed control of the Rings.
If her dad won’t let her into his empire, she’ll build her own. This is accurate. But she’s also not going to pass over the chance to take his empire when he’s gone.
And he doesn’t need to come back to it. He just needs to enjoy the comforts she offers to him, a tribute from the new ruler to the previous. She won’t be like those heirs who kill their fathers to be king. So she’s not taking the risk that one day he will wake up and want his stuff back.
She hopes, actually, that he will wake up, because deep down she still wants her father. To have his attention. To make him proud, and hear him say so. But she doesn’t need a contender for power if he does, and if he does, she knows who the Rings will follow.
She needs to speed up replacing key positions in the organization, and if he never wakes, it’s something she must do anyway. Either assign them out or get rid of them somehow, either through retirement or, more permanent retirement. Like Razorfist. The man is capable, but treats her father like he’s his own father, checking in on him constantly, making sure the care team is doing their job, that he’s turned often, muscles are massaged, no risk of bedsores, all that.
He’s spent more time with her father than she has. And her time spent with him was only that, time spent. Silence, only speaking to her if absolutely necessary, letting her do whatever she wants except have real freedom.
Razorfist got trained. He went on missions. He was the replacement son.
She considers herself magnanimous that she hasn’t had him disappeared out of jealousy. Not that disappearing him would have been easy, given his involvement in the Rings - courtesy of her dad.
Her fingers tighten in Wenwu’s hair, before she catches herself and relaxes. It’s not his fault, anymore.
She takes one more look at him, and presses a kiss to his forehead at the same time Razorfist comes in. She turns to him, and he nods at her.
“Boss,” he calls her.
She nods back, and gets up from the chair, passing by him on her way out.
He’s a good asset, as long as he knows his place.
Half a year has passed, and she has full control of the Rings now. She’s made changes, and ensured that those remaining at the compound are loyal only to her. Jon Jon is… well. He’s not Razorfist, but she trusts him more than anyone else at this point. They’ve gone through thick and thin, building up her arena in Macau, and though he’s lacking in ability in some areas, sometimes trustworthiness is the only qualifier.
She realizes she doesn’t have friends. Jon Jon doesn’t count anymore, he’s a subordinate now. She doesn’t talk to Shang-chi, because he’s a goody two shoes Avenger now and she hasn’t actually let on that she rebuilt the Ten Rings after she told him she was dismantling it. His friend could have been fun, for a short time, but Xialing’s been busy - and she’d definitely talk to her brother. Everyone else… assets.
“It does get a bit lonely up at the top. I see why you’re so obsessed with mom now,” she tells Wenwu, sitting by his bed like usual. “Props to you, when you find someone who can give it up all for you, and you give up everything in return. I’m not sure I’d be able to do that. Though, look where it got us all.”
She hears faint mumbling, and shoots him a sharp look. His eyes are open; he’s awake. But not fully conscious, it looks like, since he can’t seem to focus on anything, and his speech is only speech-like and contains no decipherable words.
“Dad?” she calls.
He looks at her, still confused, his mouth opening and closing.
“Call the doctor,” she calls to the outside, and then turns back. “It’s alright dad, you’re home, you’re safe, and you’re with family.”
He stares at her, no indication that he’s understood what she said.
She yells for the doctor again. She needs to know how much the lobotomy has affected him.
Razorfist is ecstatic to hear that Wenwu woke up. Less so, once he hears the doctor’s diagnosis. Even less when he sees that Wenwu’s new favorite activity is staring: at the wall, out the window, at nothing.
The doctor explains that possibly due to the coma duration and trauma, ignoring Razorfist’s question if it has to do with Wenwu’s soul being sucked out, that Wenwu has returned to consciousness with some life changing consequences, and that it’s not uncommon to wake up from a vegetative state with long term - even lifelong - disabilities. The main thing though, and he congratulates them on the occasion, is that Wenwu is awake, and has stayed awake, and is back with them, and that he will work with Wenwu to find out the extent to which his abilities are affected.
Xialing thanks the doctor, and arranges a lavish gift for him to find (an actual gift, she’s in a good mood). Razorfist tries to stay positive, but his face still falls when Wenwu only stares blankly when Razorfist tries to engage him.
Xialing ruffles Wenwu’s hair, and when combing her hand through he closes his eyes, and leans in to the touch. She smiles.
It’ll be their little secret - though he doesn’t actually know the secret.
The prognosis for a full recovery is slim - and saying slim is already being generous.
Wenwu can’t walk, his entire left side too weak to do much, like he’s had a stroke. The neurologist is confused, and then becomes much less confused after Jon Jon transfers an obscene amount of money into an offshore account and shares the information with the doctor, along with the personal information of all of the doctor’s close relatives.
Wenwu can’t talk, only mumble gibberish, sometimes to no one in particular. He’s responsive to simple instruction and conversation, though, so that at least is good, even if he understands it wrong half the time. If he can’t respond at all then he’s no different than from when he was vegetative, and what’s the point? Might as well just not wake up to begin with and stay in bed and let her pet him.
His intelligence…
“So he’s like an adult monkey,” she says, after the tests are done and the results are back.
“Well, more like a 5 or 6 year old child with physical and language disabilities,” the doctor corrects delicately.
She keeps a solemn face. That’s fine, more than fine. The results are fantastic, in her opinion. Maybe she should have let the original doctor who did the lobotomy live a bit longer as a reward.
Razorfist doesn’t seem to think so, staring worriedly at Wenwu, giving him his hand when Wenwu reaches out. Xialing’s takes his other hand - the weaker one - in hers, and plays with the hair at his nape with her other hand. His palms are calloused, but the muscles in them are soft, like his hand is filled with mush.
“This may improve, though progress is not guaranteed and any advancement will be gradual. But we’ll keep working with him. The good thing is that Mr. Xu is with family, and I have confidence he will be fully supported.
“Of course,” she says, “Please write down what we need to watch out for, and anything that would help my father be more comfortable.”
Razorfist is sad, but does his best to make Wenwu happy during his even more frequent visits.
She doesn’t understand his sadness. Does he not feel free, no longer under her father’s rule, but still able to have a relationship with him? She’s happy with the current situation.
He could be dead. He could be fighting with her for power. He could be constantly on the run from all the world’s alphabet organizations now that he’s without the protection of his rings.
Instead they coexist, all sitting at the same table for meals. She cuts up his food for him, and on days he has trouble with coordination she even feeds him. She pulls his head on her lap and pets him while they watch movies. Watches his face light up when he’s complimented after success at some new task. The rare smile she sees, breaking through the nothingness that he seems to feel constantly.
So what if sometimes he tries get away from her when they’re on the couch and he’s tired of her playing with his hair? She just pulls him back by the hair, and smacks the back of his hand, paired with a stern “No” for reinforcement. Children and pets need reinforcement and training, and they’re almost the same anyway.
She tells him “I love you” every time she visits. She doesn’t remember him saying it to her after her mom died, but now that he can’t talk, she’ll make it up for both of them.
Eventually Razorfist asks to be reassigned to her father’s care team, and after some deliberation she agrees; there are few who have been under her father’s leadership for a long time, and basically only Razorfist is left.
And in her father’s state, Razorfist won’t get far if he cottons on somehow and tries to whisk him away. She could care less if the man left by himself.
She moves them out, to the secondary compound she had built lower down on the mountain. She’d had quarters designed specifically for her father and his caretakers, and Razorfist’s request merely moved up the timeline.
This way, she can conduct her business at the main compound, and go visit at any time when she’s free. They have more room there, and the way the place is designed her father is more secure than he was in the main compound. And he has a good view, for when he’s in the mood for staring. He can stare out toward the green fields all he likes.
They never had the chance to be a proper family after mom died. She never got to do kid things with him. Have a father daughter relationship. But that’s okay. They can have a parent child relationship now, inverted.
She’ll take him on trips. She’ll play with him. She’ll look out for his health and well-being and tell him she’s proud of him when he learns (relearns) a new skill. Things he never did for her, she will do for him, because she knows what it’s like to be starved for attention, and she will do her best to make sure Wenwu has all he needs.
She never tells Shang-chi.