Love Never Dies.

Chapter Ten.

Time spins forward in Yunlan's mind to an incident that almost broke him in two.

Black Robe has been seriously injured from a massive blast that has destroyed the medical bay. The cause being a super soldier with a hidden explosive device which wasn't detected until it was too late. The deafening noise of the explosion reverberated in every building within the base camp, shaking the foundations and drawing concerned people outdoors offering any help to the rescue attempt of the victims. Many of the injured who were previously admitted a few days ago are buried , dead or dying.

Yunlan Chu and Da Qing are all in the lab working on the antidote when they feel the ground rumble under their feet and they all scramble to the exit only to see the demolished area where the medical bay should be.

Yunlan suddenly feels ill, his world is spinning, unaware of Chu and Da Qing shouting at him when they see him begin to fold, legs giving way ready to hit the ground, and both of them lunge for him simultaneously catching and gently lowering him while his head tilts back and he's facing the sky. Yunlan is looking through a soft hazy mist watching the emotionless soldier reach for the well hidden compact device and automatically press the button to trigger the blast.

Black Robe turned at the last second seeing it happen, and threw a defence shield around as many as possible, but wasn't able to defend himself. He's trapped under the rubble with some of the dead and Yunlan knows where he is exactly. Chu saw Yunlan's eyes flicker and open, both him and Da Qing breathed a sigh of relief, saying to him,

"You gave us a scare that time, a little warning would be nice. What did you see?"

Yunlan rose abruptly, attempting to run to the blast area and explain at the same time, while looking for Black Robe's guards, trying to tell them where to dig. The guards obeyed Yunlan's directions and continued to excavate until they found Black Robe, severely injured, but still breathing. They carried him to the laboratory which was equipped similarly to the destroyed medical bay and placed him gently down on an examination bed. No one except the guards had ever seen Black Robe without his mask and cloak but he had left instructions with them on who to trust, in case of injury causing him to be unconscious. Chu began to prepare the equipment to monitor his heart, while Yunlan and Da Qing slowly removed raggedy burnt pieces of clothing and his ripped boots.

They were all shocked and saddened seeing the injuries below every piece of torn material that they dropped on the floor. His hood had already been removed, blown off in the blast but the mask was still in place and had saved his eyes from injury. Yunlan didn't need to remove the mask to know who was lying on the bed, knowing every inch of that perfect body before the heat hit, but it was the last secret that Shen Wei had sadly been keeping from him. He slowly and carefully removed his mask hearing the sharp gasps from Chu and Da Qing who used to laugh and joke with Yunlan while he was there visiting.

Chu worked fast, beginning with his examination, while the guards confident that he was safe in their care, left to aid in the rescue, except one who stayed on guard outside the lab door. Most of his body had second degree burns with rubble collected on his skin, assorted broken bones from the weight of the various sizes of the broken pieces of building combined with the odd position in which he had found lying. Yunlan knew that Shen Wei badly needed to be immersed in a soothing bath to remove the foreign matter from his wounds, knowing that speed was of the essence, he asked Chu to use his green medical strings to correct the positions of the bones and set them in place.

Chu agreed, taking up position at the bottom of Shen Wei's bed, concentrating, he started to produce brilliant emerald strings which wound around each of his bruised feet and ankles, scraped knees, gradually climbing his damaged legs and meeting to combine their strength and climb around his hips to his waist. Chu knew that his lungs were alright because of his steady breathing, so he continued applying the strings to his ribs to support the fractures and up to his neck where they separated and flowed down each arm, coiling slowly all the way to the end of each of his fingers.

The emerald strings were used medically as support for broken bones, while glowing and pulsating they could emit natural analgesics for pain relief but Shen Wei was still in need of the antibacterial bath. Hoping that he would stay unconscious long enough until after the immersion, Chu asked Yunlan to monitor his reactions so that he could increase the strength of the strings. The automatic hoist was invaluable for safely lifting  the broken painful body and gently lowering him into the warm pink fluid, while Yunlan sat at his side watching his love for any sign of pain.

Back in the hospital room, Da Qing's attention was on Yunlan's face, continually staring and watching for any micro expression that would inform them of troubled emotions. Chu had glanced at the cat occasionally and was amazed that he never blinked when staring, but this time he did and his fur rose, diverting Chu's attention back to Yunlan who had a look of despair and helplessness which was gradually increasing.

Movement from Shen Wei was faster than Yunlan's behaviour, he dropped his head and was rapidly falling forward with his hand beginning to loose grip with Yunlan's. Emerald green strings shot like lightning across the room catching Shen Wei and securely pinning him to the chair halting his fall while surrounding and binding the joined hands which would never be separated. Shen Wei was showing increased signs of physical pain in his expressions at the same rate as Yunlan's increased look of despair, making it easy for the cat and Chu to understand what was happening.

Wei was no longer silent, letting his pain escape vocally while Chu drew the curtains around the side of the bed visible to the door and corridor, blocking off the view.

The sound of agony was apparent in every moan and movement of his head from side to side while using short gasps trying to control the level of pain, but every few gasps was followed by a loud wail while throwing his head back with tears streaming down the sides of his face. Chu increased the strength of his string hoping that somewhere in his mind it would make a difference.

Yunlan was sobbing uncontrollably, and reached with his free hand to cover the bound ones. Da Qing and Chu now knew what they were reliving,

knowing that there had only been one occasion in their common past lives to elicit this behaviour,

knowing that it was part of Yunlan's wall breaking,

knowing that it was necessary for him to face it,

and knowing that there was nothing they could do but to wait and watch.

Shen Wei's heart breaking wails eventually ceased, his breathing slowly returned to normal but it took longer for Yunlan to recover. Da Qing approached him and lay across his chest nuzzling against his chin and neck, it was safe enough to do this, no way would it awaken him, but the cat hoped that he could sense the support transmitted to him.

There was one more event that had to be seen, to demolish what was left of the remains of Yunlan's emotional wall.