To Run Towards You

Chapter 1

This story is set before Episode 4.

I have no Beta and English is not my first language. Any mistakes are all mine. Sorry.

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In the sunlight of late afternoon, the light catches the dust motes as they dance around the room, for a single second they glitter like silver.

At the carved wooden desk, a single long finger caresses a small photo. Amid the papers and research books, carefully organized for efficiency, the official file folder seamlessly blends in. No one would notice without rapt attention, that this a far cry from University property.

The Black Cloaked Envoy finds he cannot stop staring at the stunning face in that photo, at the neutral almost blank expression and how it cannot detract from the brilliant mind he sees in those obsidian eyes.

The words printed across the pages, speak of a successful career in law enforcement, high distinctions and various medals awarded mostly for bravery. It is the government history of a modern warrior.

A war general hidden by a uniform and modern bureaucracy.

Nothing can hide Kunlun, not now. Not from him.

There are holes; months that do not add up and too many awards for homicide cases. He does not know what it means, but this is Kunlun. His fierce, endlessly brave warrior who brought peace to a land...to people who only knew war.

He has not seen Zhao Yunlan in days and this file is his tangible link, his proof that his mind has not deserted him. It states that Kunlun has been alive three decades...in that time, that precious time he has chosen to protect others and serve justice.

Shen Wei hovers between pride and bone-deep fear for his life. Zhao Yunlan...persistent, fearless, reckless and the man he has spent centuries waiting for.

What he feels in this limbo between seeing Zhao again, is too complex for words; a jumble of emotion that tightened his throat and quickens his pulse. He is alive. He whispers it into the warm office air, the syllables settling in his chest. He is alive. Kunlun has returned to him.

Across the city away from this leafy campus, the man in the photo is working in the SID building, still serving justice. Shen Wei was finding it increasingly difficult determine a way forward. He had waited for millennia for this very moment and yet now had to balance protecting Zhao Yunlan, with unquenchable need to be near him.

He also feels a certain amount of shame. It burns in him, the memory of the casual reproach from Zhao Yunlan. When Zhao Xin Ci finally stepped down from the position of Guardian, Shen Wei for half a day, believed there might be an opportunity for change. A new figure in one of the most important offices, central to their combined peace-keeping efforts. Someone perhaps without the inherent prejudice. Then he learned that it was the son, positioned to replace the father.

Disgusted by the nepotism, the blatant show of force Shen Wei refused to grant the SID another audience, communicating by the proper official means and the intermediaries that could act as bridge. He placed a spy in the for of Chu Shuzhi and waited for disaster.

The information he had on the man, Zhao Yunlan was scarce. He had not been living in Dragon City he was told and Chu Shuzhi added that he was reckless...a playboy.

On the rooftop, he had been confronted with the truth. Zhao Yunlan, the man he had dismissed as a puppet of his father's...was Kunlun.

His Kunlun was incapable of being a puppet. Independent...a wild fire of a personality and a mind that was sharper than any blade... Kunlun bowed to no one.

Now, he had to make amends. For too long Zhao Yunlan had been on the receiving end of Dixing's silence, their affront and had been forced to navigate a complex political system, that was ancient. It was feudal...tribal if you counted the Yashou. Danger lurked at every corner.

He cringed now thinking of how he had shrugged at the idea of the new Guardian venturing into Yashou territory, facing the more vehement of the Yashou Elders. Let him face them. If he does not come back alive...well perhaps then, we could gain a better Guardian. Those words haunted him.

Warm brown eyes scan the file but nimble hands bury it beneath his papers the second there is a faint knock at his door. "Come in."

Professor Wu from the Genealogy Deprtment stands at his threshold. Shen Wei rises in polite welcome, but frowns at the pinched expression of the other man's face. "What is it?"

Professor Wu Ning sighs bitterly, "There has been another one. A girl this time."

Another murder he means.

The Dean of the University had made the announcement at the beginning of the week, at the formal staff meeting. It was usually the only occasion outside of the University's official celebrations, where the different faculty departments met. Half of the Professors were not resident on this side of the campus and as such , the Dean used these long sessions as a means of binding the faculty together.

"Before we attend to any other matter, I have this to say first." He said with some agitation.

Shen Wei seated in the middle row between Professor Wu Ning and Assistant Professor Huang Qin, watched the man struggle for a few minutes. It was rare to see the Dean in such a state and he felt the ripple of unease spread around the room. The last time this very sentence had been uttered, there had been a murder.

"One of our students...has been murdered."

The unease rose to become sadness and outrage, silent behind the walls of formal conduct. Shen Wei had simply waited as the General he was, with his hands folded.

"The student's name is Zhu Yitong. It appears to have been a mugging."

Not one of his. Professor Sun, of the Foreign Languages and Literature Department however, covered her mouth with her hand, in horror.

Shen Wei had grimaced in sympathy and bowed his head as thought of the victim's family.

Hours later and it had been easy to put it out of his mind, a work schedule torn between issues in Dixing and his role as a Professor. There was also a seminar on bio-engineering he was to deliver before the Board of the University and Zhao Yunlan to worry about.

One tragedy in a sea of them, endless and painful.

The University as a whole was in no way prepared to learn of a second murder, only one week later. It had been a student he was familiar with, a first year student by the name of Mi Yang. Her interest was in synthetic biology and he mourned the loss of his student, with all of the Science faculty.

During the weekend, there had been a Dixingian attack and several events he had been obliged to attend in Dixing itself, including the commemoration of their Emperor. When he returned to the University, he learned that a third student had been attacked.

Professor Wu, a broad-shouldered man with a thick mustache, reminded him greatly of his first mentor Huizhong. A man he had not seen for over ten thousand years, but he smiled at the echoes he could see in Wu Ning, who sat drinking tea with Shen Wei in early afternoon devastated by the news. Hou Boqin had been a post-graduate with a promising career in geology and had followed Wu into the field several times.

"Students often visit unpleasant places." Wu said sharply, quoting the Dean angrily. "I asked the police, when they were leaving the Dean's office. They told me, Hou Boqin had been attacked leaving his parents...his childhood home!"

"Perhaps someone is targeting students." Shen Wei proposed, pouring Wu another cup.

Sighing Wu took the offered cup. "He had a bright future with the Ministry of Natural Resources. If someone is targeting them, hopefully the police will end this rampage!"

The campus was on edge, afraid and all too aware that three of the brightest students had been murdered. Shen Wei found himself delivering stern warnings to his own classes. Asking them to stay together in groups of two or more. To not walk home alone and to avoid leaving parties without telling others or calling a friend.

Now a fourth child has been murdered.

"Who?" Shen Wei asks watching Wu intently.

"A student from the Mathematics Department." Wu said grimly, "They believe the murders are connected and the police are coming to the University."