A Means to an End (WangXian)

Risk It

Nie Mingjue stared at all the people in the room like they all had lost their heads. 

Surely this was a joke. Nie Mingjue couldn't believe a single word they had said, yet with the guidance of Wei Wuxian's empathy, he had no choice but to believe it.

"Those are only specific parts. Please forgive me for not being able to show you everything," Wei Wuxian said. He was too fearful of what Nie Mingjue would do, so he only showed him a watered down version of the events. Mostly covering what the Wen's have done. 

Nie Mingjue stared off into space. The vein in his forehead popped out as he continued to hear everything.

Then, he looked at his younger brother. His eyes were a little red and swollen. He gripped his fan so tightly that he thought Nie Huaisang would break it.

His little brother....

How much has he suffered?

"Da-ge," Nie Huaisang called out gently.

"Why did you reverse time? How did you do it?" It was the only thing that Nie Mingjue could convince himself to say.

Tears fell down his cheeks once again. "M-My best friend died, and the cultivation world was falling apart. Things only continued to get worse after the war. I-I had to. It only seemed right." He was not ready to tell him that he had died. That was something he knew needed to wait. "Wei-xiong's notes helped me discover a way to reverse time. I found it after he had passed."

Nie Mingjue stared at Wei Wuxian. "Your notes?" he questioned.

Wei Wuxian laughed nervously. "Yes, I was attempting to figure out a way to time travel as well, uhm, before I died," he hesitated. "But I didn't get too far. Nie Huaisang was able to figure the rest out from there."

"What were you thinking? Who knows what kind of mess this will cause!" Nie Mingjue raised his voice.

"I-I felt like I didn't have a choice! You have no idea what all of us went through. So many people died, people close to all of us! And the real criminals got away with it!" His cries became desperate. "It wasn't fair! Why do all the good people have to die too soon?! Why is it never the ones who actually deserve it?!" he snapped at his brother. Nie Mingjue was taken aback by his younger brother's outbursts. Nie Huaisang has always been quite reserved. He never thought he would hear him ever raise his voice.

Everyone went quiet after that.

Wei Wuxian chose to pull Nie Huaisang in for another comforting hug. He knew it was what his best friend needed.

Nie Huaisang found support in that hug, and he allowed it to linger on just a moment longer.

"Who else knows?" Nie Mingjue asked.

"No one, as far as we're aware. Only the people in this room," Lan Xichen stated.

"Well, I don't quite know about that," Wei Wuxian said as he pulled away from his friend.

"What do you mean?" Lan Xichen asked.

"There was one more person involved in the time traveling talisman. They gave the final piece to Nie Huaisang to complete it, but we don't know who that is or if they still have their memories," he explained.

"Sounds like it might not be an enemy," Lan Xichen reasoned.

"We don't know that for sure. We'll need to keep looking into this just in case," Nie Mingjue argued. He turned to Wei Wuxian. "There's no one you can think of that could have this ability?"

Wei Wuxian thought about it for a moment. "No, I don't know anyone who is capable of something like this."

"This troubles me then," he said.