by Kylie Chan
‘You’re not going back into the cage, are you?’ Meredith said, concerned.
‘The cage is in a million pieces on the bottom of the Grotto,’ I said. ‘He’s never going into that awful thing ever again.’
‘I have to make some calls and I don’t want to be interrupted,’ John said. He gestured towards me. ‘Emma is taking over.’
He disappeared into the Grotto.
‘Come with me to my office, we need to arrange this,’ I said. ‘He will be about twenty minutes.’
‘Emma, are you okay? You look …’
I waited for her to finish, but she just stared at me. ‘Yes?’
‘I don’t know. Are you two sure you’re all right? That was intense.’
‘I’m fine.’ I headed towards my office. ‘Contact the Phoenix and Dragon for me; they need to be involved. The Tiger’s Numbers Two and Four. Summon Jade; Gold is already on the way. Both my Number Ones. Er Lang, Guan Yu, Ma, you and Liu.’
Meredith stopped walking and I stopped with her. She was staring at me again.
‘What?’
She pointed behind me. ‘Your office is that way.’
I looked. We were outside John’s office.
I thought quickly. ‘I need some papers from his office, and I need to talk to Zara.’
‘No, you said both your Number Ones, Emma. Or should I say Lord Xuan? You’re the Serpent, aren’t you? Not Emma at all.’ She turned away from me. ‘How could you do that to her, John? We loved her.’ She wiped her hand over her eyes. ‘She was like a daughter to me. What you did to her is worse than death, and you’re lying about it.’ She turned back and fell to one knee. ‘Lord Xuan, I resign my commission —’
I cut her off. ‘There’s no need for that, Meredith, I’m still here. It’s me. I’m Emma.’ She didn’t move. ‘Meredith.’ I took her arm and pulled her to her feet. ‘Really. Emma and the Serpent are equal and sharing right now. My personality is still intact. I can be extracted; ask the Jade Emperor if you don’t believe me. I’m not gone.’
She studied me, and I felt more than her eyes on me, then she sagged with relief. ‘I see. We must hurry and extract you.’
‘We will, but we need to take Hell back first. Don’t tell anyone what’s happened. They’ll react the same way you just did. In the meantime, help me out; let me know if I slip up.’
‘I will. So what’s it like being Emma and Xuan Wu Serpent at the same time?’
I was silent as I tried to describe what it was like, and shook my head as words failed me. ‘Let’s just call it multiple personality disorder, except the personalities aren’t taking turns, they’re all here at once.’
‘That must be very uncomfortable.’
‘It’s extremely distracting. The Turtle is on its way to the bottom of the Grotto to try to contact Simone, and I’m there with it. Now let’s bring these people together and prepare to retake Hell. All of my closest friends and both my children are down there, and we need to get them out.’
‘Both your children?’
‘Damn. I’ll explain on the way.’
‘My Lord.’
‘No. Treat me as Emma.’
‘Ma’am?’
‘Better. Let’s go.’
John drifted to the bottom of the Grotto and squatted in Turtle form among the shards of the shattered cage. Simone. Simone. It’s me, your father. It’s Daddy. Simone, speak to me. He put more into it. Simone, it’s Daddy. Talk to me, sweetheart.
Her voice was small, like a child’s coming from far away. Daddy!
Are you … Are they hurting you?
No! I’m in one of the villas on the Celestial island, one of the holding cells for Court Ten. I’m being cared for, but I can’t leave the villa. All of Hell is sealed and nobody can teleport out.
I understand. Stay open to my call; you can be my eyes in Hell while we prepare our attack. We will attempt to retake the Celestial side soon.
You need to retake the demonic side! Everybody’s in the Pits!
I know that. I rejoined: I am the Serpent as well now. I saw them.
‘Emma, you said that out loud. Take care,’ Meredith said.
‘Shit,’ I said under my breath, and clamped my mouth shut.
Oh, Daddy, you rejoined — that’s wonderful. Is Emma okay? She was there when I … when it happened. I haven’t seen her here in Hell, she is all right, isn’t she? I was so worried …
Emma’s fine. Please stay open for my calls and watch everything that happens around you.
I’ll spy for you.
Thank you. I’ll be in touch to let you know how you can help.
Love you, Daddy.
Love you too, sweetheart. Oh, and congratulations.
Why? Oh. Raised and stuff. I don’t feel any different.
I think you were already there.
Why do you sound like Emma? You didn’t merge with her or anything did you?
Emma is fine.
He turned his attention to his other child. Frankie. Frankie?
No reply. Blankness.
Frankie, this is your real father. Your real mother is here as well. We love you, Frankie, and we have a beautiful home for you in Heaven. We are your real parents who will never hurt you. Just say the word and I will free you from the cruelty of those awful people.
A minuscule shift, a breath, then a barrier was raised.
Time for the meeting. He headed out of the Grotto and up to the War Room.
‘Opinions,’ John said. ‘Here’s the plan. We send a small force — all Immortals — against Hell and lose. We are routed. We run back to the Gates of Heaven and hope to the Heavens that they follow us, believing that our last defences are gone and Heaven is theirs. We lead them to the Gates where our main force is waiting for them — and at the same time we send a small group to take back the Celestial side of Hell while it is vacant. Secure the Celestial side of Hell, free our Immortals held there and head to the Gates with them to attack the demons from the rear, engage them from both sides and defeat them. The question is: will they fall for it?’
‘What happens if we lose and they open the Gates?’ the Tiger’s Number Two said. ‘They will overrun Heaven.’
‘Their next target will be the West, if they stick to their plans,’ John said. ‘They’ll take down the four Bastions, then the Mountain, then the Celestial Palace itself.’
The Tiger’s Number Two grunted agreement.
‘The West is evacuated, isn’t it? Jade?’ John said.
‘People have been moving back, convinced that Heaven is safe,’ Jade said.
‘Move them out again.’ John’s voice went hoarse with emotion and I shared his anguish. ‘If they take the West, Number Two, yang it to bedrock with all of them in it.’
‘With all due respect, if you order that, my father will rip your scales off, my Lord,’ the Tiger’s Number Two said.
‘Good.’
They were all silent, considering.
After a couple of minutes, John drew their attention back. ‘I’m still waiting for opinions on whether they’ll fall for it and run to take Heaven after routing us. Are they that lacking in self-control? My gut says yes, but it’s been wrong before. Many times.’
‘Put the right Shen in front of them and they won’t be able to help themselves,’ the Phoenix said. ‘If they see you running scared, Ah Wu, they will chase you to the ends of the Earth.’
‘Good idea. Use their intense loathing of you to draw them out,’ the Dragon said.
‘I wanted to be at the front of the main force waiting for them at the Gates, but that is definitely a better option,’ John said. He dropped his voice. ‘Simone is in Court Ten.’
He waited for someone to point out that we were risking the Heavens for selfish reasons, purely so we could pull our own daughter out. Nobody did.
‘Congratulations,’ Ma said, and everyone nodded agreement.
‘So the plan?’ John said.
‘It’s a good plan,’ Er Lang said. ‘The ris
k is worth it.’
‘Very well,’ John said, still feeling as if he was throwing the rest of Heaven under a bus to save his daughter. Under a bus? John glanced at me with concern; it was an expression he’d never heard before. It was from me. We brushed it off and he continued. ‘I want volunteers for the feint attack on Hell. If the plan fails, these people will be stuck in the Pits, so volunteers only. About two hundred if we can round them up. They must be Immortal: it’s effectively a suicide mission. Let me know by this time tomorrow who has agreed to it. We have a total of just less than two thousand troops left. I will give you the assignments for the rest of them as soon as we have these deployed. Anything else?’
Everybody shook their heads.
‘Dismissed. Crown Prince Ming Gui, remain.’
They filed out, discussing the plan. The general atmosphere was positive; they liked it.
You always seemed so confident, I said. You doubt your ability to that degree?
Without the Serpent’s intelligence, frequently.
You have me back now.
I don’t want you back if it means losing Emma.
We will free me. Do not doubt.
Ming moved closer and sat. ‘My Lord?’
‘Leo was shot. Did he survive?’ John said.
Martin ran one hand down his face. ‘Leo is brain dead. The doctors wanted to turn off the life support, but neither Elise nor I would let them. Elise because she doesn’t believe he’s dead; me because I don’t want to send him to Hell. As his partner but not his husband, I have no rights. Elise is the next of kin and has power of attorney over him and custody of Buffy. If we could marry as we wished, my rights would be clear. As it is now, I have no control at all over the fate of my husband or my child.’ He dropped his head. ‘Elise took both Leo and Buffy to the United States to care for them there.’ His voice became a low moan of pain. ‘The first family I ever had, the first real happiness, and it’s gone forever. Our family is destroyed. Buffy’s cries as Elise took her away will echo in my ears for the rest of my life.’
‘When we retake Hell, you can release Leo’s spirit and send it to Court Ten,’ I said.
‘Then Leo will be dead and Elise will retain custody of Buffy,’ he said.
‘No,’ I said. ‘Release him, then take his place. Have a miraculous recovery in Leo’s form and bring Buffy home.’
‘That’s brilliant,’ he said with awe. ‘Intelligence worthy of Father’s —’ He looked from me to John. ‘Oh.’
‘Don’t tell anyone. For now, I’m Emma and he is the combined Xuan Wu,’ I said.
‘And who are you really?’ he said.
‘Close enough to Emma for it not to matter,’ I said.
I felt his ice-cold gaze and the Serpent within me leapt to meet him. Parent and child regarded each other with cool affection and quiet delight to be together again.
‘I see,’ he said. ‘You will need to be quick if Emma is to be removed, Father.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘As soon as we have taken Hell, we will release me.’
‘Is that all?’
‘If I lead the feint, I would like you to lead the main force guarding the Gates,’ John said.
‘I am honoured by your confidence. I will serve to the best of my ability.’
‘Dismissed.’
He saluted John. ‘Mother.’ He saluted me. ‘Father.’ He smiled slightly, rose and went out.
John and I shared an astonished look; Martin was right.
We went out of the war room to find a large number of students standing in the courtyard of the administrative section. There were so many that they overflowed onto the breezeway and out towards the barracks; there were even about fifty of them sitting on the roofs of the administrative buildings. It was all of them.
We stopped and stared at them, and as one those on the ground dropped to one knee to salute us, then stood again.
One of the phoenixes moved to the front of the group. ‘Welcome back, Lord Xuan.’
‘Thank you, Lai.’
‘We heard you rejoin, my Lord. Are you really the combined creature again?’
Oh dear, I see where this is going, I said. We can’t change in front of everybody without them seeing me merge into it.
Think quickly, my serpents, John said.
‘Yes. I have rejoined,’ he said out loud.
The students erupted in cheers, to John’s bemusement and my delight.
‘Please show us, my Lord,’ Lai said.
‘We want to see!’ one of the students shouted from the back.
‘Real Xuan Wu!’ someone yelled from the rooftop.
I quickly presented John with a solution and both of us willed it to work. He raised one hand, and the noise abated.
He linked his hands behind his back. ‘We were just in a meeting with the leaders of the Celestial alliance. We will strike Hell within the next few days and attempt to both reclaim it and drive the demon horde off the Earthly and back to where they belong.’
‘We can do it!’ someone yelled from the rooftop, and whooped with enthusiasm.
‘You are extremely loud, Sakamoto, and if you don’t shut up you will be doing more push-ups,’ John said.
‘Worth it,’ Sakamoto said more softly, and a few students laughed.
‘I will not take True Form until the Courts of Hell are ours,’ John said.
The students went silent with dismay.
‘Your Immortal colleagues are held in Hell. I will not show you my True Form until they are free, and all my Disciples have returned to the Mountain.’ He raised his voice to be heard by all, and the air went still around us. ‘When Celestial Hell is restored and the Immortal Disciples have returned, I will go to the centre of the Great Court, in front of the Palace of Yuzhengong, and I will take my largest and darkest True Form for all my Disciples to see. This I swear.’
The students erupted in cheers. Two of them fell off the roof of John’s office and we had to run to catch them. This caused even more mayhem, and we led them back to the mess with the delighted students capering around us with glee.
Ma was waiting outside my office when I arrived. I waved him in, and he closed the door, then sat across the desk from me and put his clasped hands on its surface. He studied me with more than his eyes, then leaned back, his expression full of restraint.
‘Let me tell you what I see. I see Emma, somehow merged with the female Serpent, which is separate from its male Turtle. What the hell happened?’
‘Emma was caught up in the rejoining, and we will extract me when we have retaken Hell.’
‘Emma can be extracted?’
‘Yes. I’ll have to be sent to Court One, but it can be done.’
‘So you’re the female part now, Serpent?’ Ma said. ‘Has the Xuan Wu separated into two creatures again?’ He spoke with quiet hope. ‘When Emma’s extracted and reunited with her Turtle — is there a chance for us, Ah Wu?’
John dropped everything and teleported straight into my office, his eyes wide with alarm that rocked through me as well. The memories flooded back. Me as the female Turtle before we’d joined — me with Ma …
‘Holy fucking shit.’ I looked up at John and he stared down at me, horrified. I jabbed my finger at Ma as I yelled at John, ‘How could you do that to this wonderful man? He’s a Celestial Worthy of the highest calibre and you just ditched him when you joined with me. That is so wrong!’
John sighed, ran his hand over his eyes, and sat next to Ma. He took Ma’s hand and clasped it. ‘Look at the memories, Emma. It was mutual.’
‘I loved the female Turtle,’ Ma said with infinite longing. ‘The joined Dark Lord … is male. I see him as a friend. A brother.’ He spoke more softly. ‘Never as a partner.’ He spoke to John. ‘When you were female with me … it was the best thing in the world. A dream come true.’
‘But we haven’t been female for nigh on four thousand years, and you still stay with us,’ I said.
You’ve taken female form with me, I s
aid to John. How could you do this to him?
The Turtle was female. After I combined, the Serpent part of me refused to be female, even for him.
And that was me. I leaned on the desk and put my head in my hands. ‘We are such a bastard.’
‘No,’ Ma said, and he squeezed the Turtle’s hand. ‘You are the Dark Lord. You are male and perfectly aligned, and so am I. I would not change to female for you, so here we are.’
Neither of us would be female, so as he says: here we are.
I looked up at Ma. ‘You were right. The Serpent has changed to female and the Turtle is male. We cycled.’
His face filled with understanding. ‘You are the essence of both yang and yin. Of course you cycled, it was inevitable.’ He hesitated, then leaned forward over the desk. ‘So where does this leave us?’
‘With Emma right in front of us,’ John said with heavy meaning.
‘As well as the Serpent Xuan Wu.’ I sighed with feeling. ‘I love you dearly, Ma.’
His face crumpled; my words had nearly broken him.
You let him suffer for centuries, then went to the Earthly and did exactly the same thing to Leo!
I did nothing to them. They did it to themselves.
‘Ma.’ I rose, went around my desk and crouched in front of him to hold his hand. ‘Hua Guang, look at me.’
He raised his head to look into my eyes, his own full of longing.
‘When I’m extracted, I hope I will retain the Dark Lord’s memories and feelings. Because I love you so much …’ I checked John’s reaction; he wasn’t jealous because he felt the same way. His love for me wasn’t diminished by his ancient bond with Ma; and neither was my love for him. I hoped that wouldn’t change. ‘When I’m extracted, I’ll talk to the Dark Lord. What we’ve done to you is so wrong, and now that we’ve cycled,’ I glanced at John, ‘and learned so much about ourselves, I’m sure we will find a place for you in our hearts.’
‘I know I have a place there already, Emma. There is no need for you to be unfaithful to each other,’ Ma said. ‘I know the Xuan Wu’s number is one. I respect your relationship, and I am so happy that the Dark Lord finally found someone who is his equal in intelligence and,’ he tweaked a small smile, ‘bad-tempered brain-dead stubbornness.’