The Untamed Oneshots / CQL / WangXian

Always Together

Requested by: Nico-00(Dark Lan Wangji.)
Author's Note: I've never written anything dark before, so please don't judge. I tried.

The alcove that housed the Blood Pool was completely empty. As was Demon Subdue Palace and the Wen village; they had been slaughtered after all. Elderly and children; innocents that had fallen prey to the wrath of the cultivation world for merely carrying a surname that was deemed a poison to drip from their tongues.

Lan Wangji felt exactly the same. Dead on the inside, heart empty and hollow.

All that ever mattered was his soulmate. Without him, what is there left to live for? What is life without his Wei Ying?

The bloodbath of Nightless City was still raging. Oh yes, the supposed righteous men from supposed righteous sects still thirsted after something they should not posses. Those bastard hounds foaming at their maws were still tearing each other limb from limb for a touch of the last remaining piece of the Stygian Tiger Amulet.

Wei Ying was forgotten when clan leader Jiang sent him to his death with a choice: die alone, or drag your white robed soulmate down with you. And when the cry of a lost soul's name echoed through the battlefield like an enchantment whistled on ChenQing, even the ones who were of stone hearts shivered at the agony. They thought no one would miss Wei Wuxian and no one did. No one...except one.

Lan Wangji had rode Bichen to the smog of resentment that had hugged Wei Wuxian in its motherly embrace and shattered when he saw the broken shards of his Love. Bones and blood and everything else in between lay splattered and crooked, distorting the image of a once smiling youth that shamelessly sat on the roof of Cloud Recesses with pitchers full of sloshing sin.

Without two thoughts, he'd scooped him up and vanished to the one place he knew had the power to bring his Love back to him.

The Burial Mounds was eerily quiet now that no civilization filled the air with normal human breath. Ironically, the silence was so quiet that it sounded loud in Lan Wangji's ears, knelling bells of death as he stalked through the cave where the Blood Pool was situated. After he'd placed the broken body into the waters and let it soak, he set to work.

First, he needed to draw an array around the Blood Pool with different symbols for life, death, the afterlife and rebirth.

Next, he needed an item that contained an emotional connection to tether the two souls together. Lan Wangji chose his headband, seeing as he'd greeted his ancestor with it tied around their wrists.

A trigger object. One that was a part of the deceased's soul and grounded them. ChenQing, with its sleek onyx body that thrummed with pent up resent and bled a ruby tassel was the obvious choice.

Blood of the one performing the ritual. Unsheathing Bichen, Lan Wangji sliced his palm quick and precise before casting the blade aside, letting the pearls of red life essence drip into the Blood Pool.

Every ingredient now accounted for, Lan Wangji tied their wrists together as he knelt next to the pool and began to chant, whispers of the restless spirits of lost souls buried beneath the cursed land joining him in his plea.

"Blood calls for blood, a soul once lost now found. Tether these souls together, bring back that which once was. Life, death, afterlife, rebirth."

The last word shook the stone beneath Lan Wangji's knees as it was howled over and over again by the dead, a steady heartbeat that formed from a blanket of dark shadowy hatred and made his ears pop.

The Blood Pool's waters began to bubble and boil, resentment rising from the depths like steam. The whispers grew louder, the thundering earth shaking in tandem. Outside, sudden lightning whips cracked across the sky, the heavens protesting at what the Second Jade of Lan was doing.

'Rebirth...reBIRTH...REBRITH...'

An ice cold feeling bloomed from Wangji's shoulder as someone, or rather something, placed a hand on him, though he knew better than to turn around and look. The thing murmured in his ear, the putrid smell or rotten flesh making his stomach churn. "Do you want him back, little Lan?"

"Mn."

The voice cackled, the sound a half-crazed woman that rose from her death bed after being scorned by her husband before it vanished, the cold replaced with heat as the Blood Pool pulsed, bright red to pitch black. Once. Twice. Thrice. It stopped, the bubbles popping as the steamy resentment settled back into the water.

A figure rose to the surface and Lan Wangji stood, carefully stepping in. The waters soaked his pristine white robes, tainting them a sickening red and sticking wetly to his skin, the shell of the new person he'd now become settling over him like a human skin mask.

Lan Wangji gathered the frame of the slight person in his arms, wiping their face somewhat clean as he murmured, "Wei Ying."

Lacy black lashes fluttered before familiar warm brown eyes met his gaze.

His bones were all in place. His heart was pumping blood through his veins, unnaturally black as a stamp from Death's registry of the deceased. Though he carried no memories of what happened after he gave his golden core away(something Wen Qing had confided in him before he left when he'd last visited the Burial Mounds), it was better that way. Lan Wangji didn't want to him relive that pain again, didn't want him to suffer any more than he already has. It might have been done by unorthodox means, but he'd brought him back.

His Wei Ying was alive.

Wei Wuxian looked around with frightened eyes, clutching at a black flute that was foreign to him yet felt soothing nonetheless. He curled into himself, trying to burrow into the ruined Lan robes in search of comfort and answers. "L-Lan Zhan, w-where are w-we? Wh-what hap-"

"Shh. Rest, Wei Ying. You are safe. We can be together now."

It made sense that he was frightened. He was spat on by the cultivation world, sent to his death by an unfair decision he had to make and dragged back from the dungeons of hell...And he did not remember a single thing.

Placing his trust in the man he considers his soulmate, Wei Ying settled against his chest, soon lulling off to sleep as Wangji moved to get his sword. They had to leave soon, before some sense came to the idiots at war for power and they lay siege to the Burial Mounds. He had to take Wei Ying. Take him and hide him away. Away from the world, from everything that will dare to harm his soulmate.

A soft gasp teased the air and Lan Wangji spun around, one arm tightening around Wei Wuxian as the other pointed the threatening tip of Bichen at the intruder.

Lan Xichen, having seen his brother's anguish and how he flew off with the corpse of his loved one, had searched for him all over. Never had he expected to find his innocent baby brother saturated in gory red whilst holding the quite alive Yiling Patriarch, who had been dead a while ago, in his arms and looking ready to strike down an army if they were to come at him.

"Wangji," he breathed, horrified. "What have you done?"

Lan Wangji looked tenderly at the sleeping form in his embrace, peaceful and at ease knowing his other half was there to protect him. "I brought him back. We'll be together now." He nodded as if he were speaking to himself, not in his right mind due to grief and the resentment he'd needed to give life to the dead. "We'll be together."

The ground had stopped shaking, but stray whispers still danced around, their words lilted tauntingly when being uttered from their graves.

'Rebirth...reBIRTH...REBIRTH...'

Lan Wangji was resolute. He would hide his beloved. Protect him from all evil, from all harm. No one and nothing could part them. Not even death.

After all...

Soulmates are meant to always be together.