Ringkeeper - Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

OOOOO5OOOOO

Wenwu had found them, and he was bringing them home.

"Shaun," cried Katy. "Where's Dryaa?"

Shaun's heart skipped a beat - he had been wondering the exact same. In all the chaos that had ensued with the Ten Rings' arrival, their friend had vanished into it all. What did that mean?

"They'll understand," Wenwu told Razorfist as the guards dragged his children away to be locked up in the dungeons of the compound. "When I bring her home."

His elaborate plan to bring Ying Li home had come as a shock to his children, but they would come to understand. The would. 

After that, the leader of the Ten Rings retired back to his study, where he had already spent countless hours in the plot to bring his beloved wife home to them, to reunite their family.

Not long after he had sat down at his desk before his grand spread of notes, he heard it, creaking above him. Footsteps on the roof - someone was there.

The Rings hummed around his wrists and energy crawled up the veins of his arms as he stood and slowly headed for the door leading outside into the enclosed compound. As soon as he did, the sounds, the footsteps overhead, stopped.

When he turned around, a dark, cloaked figure sat in his chair before his pile of books and papers, their hood low over their face, bathing their familiar features in shadow. While he was in his study, distracted, she snuck into the compound and found her way right to him. 

"Always curious." She spoke first.

"Always sneaky," he returned. "Like how you befriended my son."

She ignored his comment. "Hello - old friend." He nodded in response.  "You know what I've come for. It is long overdue." 

"They do not belong to you."

"Ah, they are neither yours nor mine, I am merely their Guardian. It is my purpose, given to me, gifted to me-"

"-By a mysterious figure you do not know."

"It is my duty."

"And yet you failed."

"Not initially. At first, you were curious. Only later did you become power hungry and plagued by greed. Only then did I realize my mistake."

"Too late."

"Much too late." She reached out towards him, well, towards the Rings themselves, and they seemed to hum in response, remembering their former master. Perhaps there was even a small, slight flicker of the purple energy they gave off when attached to her, but he turned away with them before it could really be confirmed.

"Don't do this," she told him. "Don't destroy her home. And don't use them like this." Again, she nodded to the Rings. 

"They did this to her."

"She wouldn't want you to do this to her home and people."

"She would want me to help her, to bring her back to her family."

"But at the cost of her home? And you keep this up, you'll lose the rest of your family too."

"This doesn't concern you.  And you know so much about family?"

"That's cold, even for you." She tried not to show how much that hurt.  "But I do have friends." And with that, she vanished into the night. 

(Work is slowing down now that the holidays are wrapping up, which gives me more time for writing! :) Yay!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :))