Chapter Text
On Yiling, a moon of Planet Yunmeng:
Sizhui landed the ship on a clearing on the forest covered moon. He remembered learning about Yiling, but he still felt like he wasn’t prepared for what it looked like on the surface. When he had heard “a forest moon”, the first thing that had come to mind was a lush green place full of trees and wildlife. Yiling was not that.
“I don’t Sense anyone here,” Sizhui said, standing on the ramp of their ship next to Master Wangji. The trees surrounding the clearing were twisted and bare.
Master Wangji didn’t say anything. He started walking down the ramp and into the woods, while Sizhui hurried after him. Sometimes, Sizhui wished that his Master was a bit more forthcoming about what they were doing and why, but all he could do was trust him and follow.
They stopped in front of a stone bunker. Master Wangji examined the control panel next to it. As Sizhui tried to peek over his shoulder at what he was doing, he laid his hand on the scanner and a moment later, the door slid open.
That was when Sizhui realized that he had been wrong about there being no one on the moon. He saw a man trapped in carbonite.
The moment the door slid all the way open, the frozen slab began to thaw. Sizhui could Sense how the Force pulled towards the man, as though he was a drain and the Force but liquid.
He knew who the man was; both from the living memory of the Knights and Masters who walked the halls of the Jedi Temple, and from the far less factual whispers of the Younglings and Padawan.
Darth Neider, the most powerful Sith to have ever lived.
Sizhui stopped himself from activating his lightsaber and concentrated on his breathing. He watched in shock as Master Wangji walked across the grate floor, to the rabidly unfreezing slab of carbonite, to hold out his arms. Sizhui thought highly of his master, but was Master Wangji’s plan to throw a worse Sith at the Senate until the Sith already in there went away? There had to be more to it.
The Sith thawed and fell into Master Wangji’s waiting arms.
Sizhui couldn’t see detail in the dimly lit bunker. What he did see was Darth Neider grasping the front of Master Wangji’s robes and Master Wangji holding him tighter in response. They stared into each other’s eyes, bright Sith red against Master Wangji’s light brown.
The moment stretched out and then ended. Darth Neider turned his face towards Sizhui.
“Oh! And who’s this?” His voice was raspy from disuse, but the tone was delighted. Sizhui glanced at his Master, who nodded for him to speak.
“I’m Lan Sizhui, Master Wangji’s Padawan.”
The Sith’s face went through several emotions. None of them were the type of rage Sizhui associated with the Sith Order. “Master Wangji! A Padawan! How long has it been? You say Lan, that must mean you’re from Gusu as well?”
“I…” Sizhui took a deep breath and answered the questions asked in the order that they had been asked. “I’m unsure what you mean by ‘how long’. Yes, I spent a short period of my childhood on Gusu, before I was taken in by the Jedi Order.”
“Thirteen standard years,” Master Wangji said. Darth Neider turned back towards him, still in his arms like that was just a normal thing that they did. Sizhui had never seen his Master hold anyone before.
“Thirteen?” The question rang empty in the bunker before the Sith grinned wide. “That’d explain why you’re so broad and even more handsome than I remember, Master Wangji.”
The Sith winked at Master Wangji before addressing Sizhui again. Sizhui was reeling, the grate floor and the pit beneath it felt a little too unsteady, all of a sudden.
“My name is Wei Wuxian. I know you’ve probably heard all sorts of things about me, but I can assure you that I really don’t eat Jedi Padawan for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!”
“So all of the other things are true?” Sizhui asked before he could stop himself. Darth Neider, Wei Wuxian laughed.
“Yes, well, I do occasionally eat Padawan for a light snack.”
“Behave,” said Master Wangji, but it was more of a fond scolding than anything serious, and it was immediately followed by Wei Wuxian saying, “Make me.”
Sizhui got the feeling that this was an exchange they had had a million times before. Which was weird, since his Master had never mentioned Wei Wuxian.
But then again, Master Wangji wasn’t big on mentioning things.
Wei Wuxian swayed in Master Wangji’s arms. “We need to get you back on the ship,” Master Wangji said, holding him tighter.
“I’m fine,” Wei Wuxian replied, still swaying. He reached out and Pulled something to him. It disappeared into the folds of his black robes before Sizhui could get a good look at it.
“Did you forget that I’m the most powerful Sith ever and so on? A little freezing won’t hold me down for long.”
In response, Master Wangji walked out of the bunker, towards where they’d landed. Wei Wuxian had no choice but to be taken along. Sizhui followed.
“Thirteen years of freezing,” Master Wangji corrected.
Sizhui fell into step with his Master, watching the exchange from the corner of his eye.
“You’re absolutely right, as always. It could’ve been a much shorter time.” Wei Wuxian shot Master Wangji a pointed look, which he returned with a glare. Sizhui was pretty sure that he was missing some important context. Or, a lot of important context, more likely.
“For anyone interested, it is obvious you are alive. You need your strength.” Master Wangji’s word count for the day was rising so rapidly that Sizhui worried he’d get a sore throat.
“Who’s interested? Besides the entire Jedi Order, and all of the other authorities both local and Galactic,” Wei Wuxian asked.
“Most of the common people, too”.
The Sith smiled, and turned away so his long, loose hair could hide his face. “Right, yeah, of course.”
It was bizarre, and in Sizhui’s humble opinion, in bad taste to joke about the impact Darth Neider had had on most of the galaxy. What about all those atrocities he’d heard so much about? Surely Master Wangji couldn’t find the loss of life funny.
“The Council strongly suspects that there’s a Sith in the Senate,” Sizhui explained for his Master, who was just staring at Wei Wuxian.
Wei Wuxian stopped smiling and the Force whirling around him went still and suffocating. Sizhui took a step back, but Master Wangji held Wei Wuxian closer and more secure in his arms.
“The apprentice of Wen Ruohan, then,” Wei Wuxian said
“Weren’t you his apprentice?” Sizhui asked. He had been taught that there could only be one at a time, and that the apprentice, in order to become a full-fledged Sith, had to kill their Master. That was what the elders had said had happened between Darth Neider and the Sith Master Wen Ruohan, Darth Igniferus.
Wei Wuxian looked over at him, smiling again, but now that Sizhui had seen him smile for real, he could recognize that this one was fake.
“Isn’t your Master still big on reminding everyone not to believe any old rumor they hear?” Wei Wuxian asked. “Consider this Lan Sizhui: a scenario where I was there when Wen Ruohan died, and he was pierced by a lightsaber wielded by a Sith, and in light of what you know about the Sith hierarchy, there is now a Sith Lord in the Senate.”
Sizhui looked at his feet with a thoughtful frown.
“You don’t need to figure out the answer right away. In fact I think it’s better if you let it simmer for a while,” Wei Wuxian told him, and when Sizhui glanced at him, he looked fond. It wasn’t an expression Sizhui had been expecting, but it did stir something in the back of his mind. Like he’d seen it before.
Their ship was right in front of them. Sizhui snapped out of his reverie and opened it so Master Wangji could take Wei Wuxian inside and place him on a bed. There were only two beds on their small ship; a bit of an oversight on his Master’s part, Sizhui thought.
With a final glance at his Master and their new… Ally? Prisoner? Bait? Sizhui left them alone in the tiny sleeping quarters and went to pilot the ship.
It was peaceful for the first few hours of their journey back. Likely, Wei Wuxian had given in to his exhaustion and was resting while Master Wangji saw to his healing. They’d jump into hyperspace once they were out of the System. The Star System AFC-3 was huge, with many inhabited planets and moons; getting out would take a while.
Sizhui took a moment to admire the cloud and mist covered Planet Gusu as they passed its orbit. He had been too young to remember much about those days, and his home was the Order now. Pondering on who you had been before the Order was ill advised and one of the many paths to the dark side.
The peace didn’t last much longer than that. Wei Wuxian, with Master Wangji in tow, burst into the cockpit.
“It’s so annoying though, and I forgot to grab a hair tie or anything while you were dragging me out,” Wei Wuxian complained. It was true that his hair was long and all over the place.
Shizui tried his best to concentrate on preparing for the next leg of their journey. It was a challenge.
“Padawan, you have long hair, too. Surely you have ties to spare.” Wei Wuxian grabbed the back of the pilot’s seat.
“Do not bother him,” Master Wangji said just as Sizhui was turning around to tell Wei Wuxian that he did in fact have a spare. Before he could get the words out, his Master reached inside his sleeve, fiddled with something for a moment, and pulled out a red ribbon.
“Here,” he offered it to Wei Wuxian.
Wei Wuxian blinked, his mouth opening as if to say something, and then just stayed open for a good few seconds. Sizhui hadn’t known that his Master was carrying a ribbon around.
When Wei Wuxian did speak, what came out was, “Shouldn’t you tie me up, Master Wangji?” He held out his hands, wrists together. “I am your prisoner, after all,” he said in a tone of voice that was completely at odds with his reaction earlier.
Master Wangji wore an expression Sizhui couldn’t quite read. “Not until we’re closer to Coruscant,” he said.
“Um, Master?” Sizhui asked and watched as Wei Wuxian’s eyes took on a delighted glint.
“Why, Master--” he began and then stopped and changed tracks completely. “Wait, we’re going straight to Coruscant?”
“Hm.”
That was more like the Master Wangji he knew and Sizhui filed away what he’d just seen and heard. “We’re going to bring you back with us,” he said, back on track, centered by the mission. He glanced at his Master to check that he’d understood the next step right and got an approving nod.
“On whose orders?” Wei Wuxian asked.
“We’ve been tasked to find a way to best lure out the Sith in the Senate,” Sizhui explained their mission parameters. It was common for the Jedi Council to just toss Master Wangji at the general direction of the problem and trust that he’d sort it out.
It was a weird plan, with layers to it he couldn’t see yet, but Sizhui trusted Master Wangji’s judgment. If he thought that locating the infamous Wei Wuxian and taking him back into the Temple was the best course of action, then that had to be the case.
Wei Wuxian narrowed his eyes at Master Wangji. In response, Master Wangji held out the ribbon in a more insistent way.
“We, uh, we’re about to make the jump to lightspeed, you’ll need to sit down,” Sizhui said, even though interrupting felt deeply uncomfortable.
At that, Master Wangji glanced at him and then back at Wei Wuxian and the ribbon, raising his brows. Wei Wuxian let out a put-upon sigh.
“Fine,” he said and spun around. “Don’t think you’re off the hook. We will talk about this later.”
“Of course,” Master Wangji said and moved closer to tie Wei Wuxian’s hair back. Sizhui watched as he gently combed his fingers through it, gathering it into a high ponytail. Wei Wuxian had closed his eyes at some point, but he cracked them open when Master Wangji’s hand settled onto his shoulder, with the thumb brushing the nape of his neck.
With a wry smile, he reached up to take Master Wangji’s hand in his before turning back to face him. “In front of the Padawan, really?”
Sizhui had never witnessed his Master rolling his eyes before. Wei Wuxian’s smile widened and he swung their joined hands from side to side before letting go to take a seat.
“At first opportunity, we’ll talk,” he reiterated. Master Wangji nodded and sat down as well.
Sizhui jumped the ship into hyperspace.