The Awakening of the Awakener

finale

"Hey!" XiFan stopped in his tracks, having finally had enough of all the questions and no answers. "Hey, can you at least answer some of my questions already?" He hissed. "I am getting tired of you wandering around and just expecting us to follow you without any answers. We just fought with you, you can at the very minimum just let us know what it is that we just got ourselves into." He was breathing heavily, not exactly expecting anything from his words, but really he was on the edge of his tether and he just...didn't know what to do anymore. There was so many questions, no answers, and Lu Ping did not seem to look like he was going to be answering them any time soon, just kept pushing them forwards. 

He understood the urgency, he did, but he was getting tired of not having any answers and being forced to question everything that he had thought, question what he knew, and still end up having no answers to what he wanted to know. It was annoying, it was exhausting, and he was just tired of doing it. He found...he wanted his answers, and they were not in a life-threatening situation, at least not yet, if what Lu Ping was saying was to be taken honestly. However, how could he take Lu Ping seriously when he was getting more and more questions, and more theories, than he was getting answers? It made no sense, and it was agitating at the best of times. Now though? He had just stood up against the Mountain and Sea gang, sent off his disciples to the safest place that Lu Ping could think of, and here they were trecking up a mountain, apparently not having any intention of meeting the others as they had been led to think. 

He would say that he had multiple reasons to want answers, and he was certainly demanding them now. He wanted to know the ties that Lu Ping had with those people, with that gang, and he wanted to know what he had meant behind what he had told them. He wanted to know why he had taken the token from the man, and how he had done so anyways. He wanted to have answers, and he wanted them before he went any further. He was not going to keep moving until he got what he wanted either. Stubborn, perhaps, a bit too much even, but he knew that it was the only way to get through to Lu Ping about how serious he was about this. He wanted his answers.

It would seem that Lu Ping sensed that too as he closed his eyes and grit his teeth in frustration. He also, it would seem, knew that there was no way to talk him out of this, and therefore did not even bother trying. He stood, hands on his hips as Xifan settled himself up against one of the trees, laying comfortably back, staring up at him, waiting for him to divulge the information that they all wanted to know. Lu Ping did not sit, but their buddy idiots decided to take a leaf from Xifan and settled on the ground next to him and Lu Ping just rolled his eyes. 

"Fine, what do you want to know?" 

"How do they know you?" XiFan questioned instantly. Lu Ping's eyes fluttered closed. He should have guessed that of all the questions, that would be the first one that he asked, still it did not prepare himself for it, despite knowing it. 

"They razed my sect to the ground, killed my parents, and took me." 

"The Mountain and Sea gang is not in the habit of taking prisoners." Xifan refuted instantly. Lu Ping just nodded. 

"No, they are not." He agreed. He did not elaborate and XiFan sighed. If he wanted to know it looked like he was going to have to ask directly. There was not really a tactful way to ask either, and so he cringed as he did so. 

"so why did they take you hostage?"

"Experimentation." He said simply, with a shrug of his shoulders. "I was taken before I had my eighth birthday. So it was...a long time ago. The Gang was a bit different then, under a different ruler, but that didn't matter. Once they razed my sect to the ground it was soon after that they got a new one. I never knew who it was, and I did not bother wanting to know." 

"And you escaped." Lu Ping nodded. 

"With Su Tang. I didn't think that we were going to make it, but we did. I was surprised. I had left the mountain, just happy to die under the open sky. Yet, we survived, but now they found me again. There is no way that they aren't going to go dragging themselves to their stupid little leader to tell them that they fought with the Wind Takers, and it won't take long after that for them to recognize who I am." 

"So where are we going?" 

"I am dropping you off to safety, afterwards, I am going to the Heavenly sect to warn them. Maybe we will get somewhere with them. I don't actually know." 

"No," XiFan said sternly. 

"What?" Lu Ping questioned, his body getting defensive once again. 

"You can't very well just drag us to safety like you did with Su Tang and the others. We are going with you." Lu Ping glared at him. 

"Even being with me is dangerous. How are you not seeing that?" 

"We are, we just choose to ignore that slight part." XiFan said simply. "You can't fight them alone." 

"I won't be alone, I will be with the Heaven Sect." 

"Even better, take us with you. More numbers." Lu Ping sighed, shaking his head. 

"Whatever. Don't say I didn't warn you, though."