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kimistorm · 2 years

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Throne of Lies [Chapter 6]

➢ AN: If you're coming back from reading chapter 5 before July 31st, please go re-read it again since I've added some things!

➢ Masterlist

➢ pairing: Shang-Chi x GN! Reader, reader is Xialing’s best friend

➢ genre: romance, action

➢ warnings: Movie spoilers.

➢ word count: 2.1 k

➢ synopsis: You met Xu Xialing 4 years ago on the streets of Macau, and you didn’t know it at the time, but the two of you were going to build an empire together. Though, unbeknownst to her, you were already building your own empire of lies. Picks up in the middle of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

You were careful. Just like when you and Shang-Chi were sneaking around earlier, you were quiet with your steps and carefully looked around corners. You were slower than when you had Shang-Chi guiding your every step, and the maze of a building didn’t do anything to make you feel any more confident in where you were going. It felt like you were going in circles as around every corner was the same painting that you swore you saw two turns ago.

You couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated with yourself. You thought you were good at directions. Or at the very least, not getting lost. You crossed your arms as you stood at the crossroads and tried to figure out the way out. For a compound that looked quite open and breezy when you first entered, you somehow found yourself lost in the heart of the compound without a window in sight.

In your silence, you could easily hear a few muffled shouts. Which sounded bad for you.

You didn’t hesitate as you decided down one crossroad and quickened the pace. You weren’t sure if it was because you were discovered to not be in your room, or something else, but you needed to get to that pond as soon as possible.

You paused your speedwalk to take off your boots and run through the compound in your socks. If you got in a fight with someone, this would definitely work against you, but for the time being, it was worth it in order to run around the compound stealthily. You tried to run in the direction of where you felt the wind, and to your delight, you did find an open area, but it was the courtyard. The lit hallways were plenty to allow the guards across the courtyard to see you and it was mere seconds before they shouted at you and you sprinted in the opposite direction.

You ducked around corners and down hallways, but you could easily hear the sounds of your pursuers behind you. It wasn’t long until you found yourself at a dead end, and you readied yourself for a fight. Your boots would have to work as makeshift boxing gloves for the time being.

The first person you tackled came down with ease, but it wasn’t long until you were overwhelmed and someone was pinning you in their grasp. You kicked wildly and shoved yourself off the wall to knock the two of you over, which successfully worked, except you hit the ground head first. You tried to fight against the dazed feeling that quickly stilled your flailing limbs, but the world was spinning just a little too much for your liking and your eyes fluttered shut.

“Wake up!” you jolted awake as your eyes snapped open. You probably would’ve fallen out of your chair had you not been nearly tied up in it. You noticed how your arms were handcuffed behind you, around the back of the chair that was keeping you straight up.

“Good morning to you too,” you couldn’t help but gripe back due to the throbbing in your head.

“(y/n), was it?” you froze at the sound of your name and looked to the voice to find Wenwu looking down at you.

“That’s correct.”

“How could a mother care enough for her child that she’d enroll them into a dojo, but then leave them to fend for themselves in the streets of Macau?”

“She died.” You responded bluntly as you continued to glare at him.

“You don’t look like you were born there.”

“World has changed a lot since you first were born,” you explained offhandedly, “immigration.” You were clearly at the disadvantage here. In front of you was a man who effortlessly slaughtered thousands of people and reigned as a dictator. He wouldn’t care if he killed you, but here you were, riling him up.

Katy’s reckless nature must’ve been rubbing off on you.

“Ah, so you immigrated from Ta Lo.” He smiled at you, “did they kick you out as well?”

“You keep on saying Ta Lo this, Ta Lo that. I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“And yet you care so much when I threaten to burn them down.”

“Because I care about human life. It’s not right to burn down an entire civilization to the ground because you’re angry.” You glared up at him, “in fact, it’s downright insane.”

He gave you a smirk, “funny how Shang-Chi said something similar.”

“Good, he grew up with morals even with a horrible dad like you.” He slapped you across the face and you let out a gasp at the sting, but that didn’t stop you from turning back to him with a smile on your face.

“I wouldn’t smile like that,” he threatened, “I know more about you than you think.”

“Really? You seem to be fishing for something you’re not going to get.”

“You grew up in Ta Lo, and you’re a part of the Ta Lo military. You moved to Macau four years ago as you tailed Xialing.” Your face took on a confused look as he continued his tale. “In those four years, you haven’t heard from Ta Lo. They’ve abandoned you, and yet, you try so hard to protect them.” Your heart was pounding, and in your handcuffs, your hands kept on alternating between being loose and balling up. “To think, Xialing is already abandoning you for just disobeying her orders.” He was grinning widely now, and you could see him delighting at your nervous expression. “You’ve been lying to her for 4 years, she won’t forgive you for that.” He proudly strutted away from you, “You’ll be abandoned and nothing from your life will be remembered.

“You’ve been sitting on your throne of lies for far too long,” even from several feet away you could see him sneering at you, “and I can’t wait to see it collapse.”

You dropped your nervous facade and grinned confidently at him. This change in your atmosphere seemed to shock him as he looked closer at you, “a throne of lies? You flatter me so,” you smiled and he walked closer to you, “no, I think a seat of deceit is a more fitting term. I don’t have a magical superpower that makes me any sort of royalty.” You pointedly looked at the ten rings on his wrist, “I don’t need it. Besides,” you let out a scoff, “everything you’ve said was a lie. You know even less about me than you thought.”

“That’s a lie!”

“Prove it.”

“My men have been trailing-”

“You don’t even know how to get to Ta Lo, you said it yourself.” You allowed yourself to smile a wide, unnerving smile, “if you can’t wait to see me collapse, then I’m ecstatic to see you fall.”

Another punch to the face, this one with enough force to cause your consciousness to falter. Through your murky ears, you heard him say, “take (pronoun) to the prison.”

You were out before you were even moved from your chair.

When you opened your eyes again, there was a dull throb from your head and brown rock above you. Definitely not the bedroom that you were in earlier, though, you couldn’t say you were exactly surprised considering the rough treatment that got you here.

There was a relieved sigh, “glad you’re awake.”

“What happened?” you groggily asked once the world came into focus. The closest person you saw was Shang-Chi looking worriedly at you.

“Ran into my dad.” He explained, “uh, he wanted me to discuss battle plans with him and I kind of shouted in his face.”

You winced as your hand brushed a knot growing on your head, “I thought you were the rational one.”

“I’d say not wanting to burn down a village makes me pretty rational.”

That jolted you alert and you jumped to your feet, “we need to get out of here.” Your eyes quickly searched the cell that you were all being held in as you searched for something that would aid your escape.

“Woah,” Shang-Chi held out his hands around you to steady you, “don’t move too quickly, you just got a nasty hit to your head.”

“I’ve dealt with worse,” you mentioned offhandedly and brushed past him to look closer at your situation.

“When?” it was two voices who asked the question in shock, and you halted your quick movements to find where Xialing’s voice came from.

“You’re here too.” You smiled as you looked at her, though the same couldn’t be said for her. “It was from before we met,” you waved off her concern as you walked closer to her. She still looked at you with anger behind her eyes, but she didn’t forcefully walk in the other direction, so you took that as a step in the right direction. “You’re still mad?” you asked gently.

“Yeah, I am.” Her voice was curt, and you were finding it hard to believe that she was standing her ground just because she was willing to talk to you.

“We’re both still alive.” You tried to smile and lighten the situation.

“I wouldn’t call being trapped in this prison alive.” She nearly spat out, her arms still crossed defensively in front of her.

You held back the desire to roll your eyes, “would you stop acting like a child? You’re acting really petty right now and honestly, this is the worst time to act like this.”

“So what if I’m acting like a child? I never got a chance to embrace my childhood.” She spat back. You could tell the two of you were getting more and more heated, and that this wouldn’t solve anything, but you were so frustrated with her that it was hard to think straight.

“Yeah? Well, you don’t need to get angry at me for not listening to your orders.” You argued back, “I’m older than you for crying out loud!”

“I’m not mad at you for not listening to me, I’m mad at you because you put yourself in danger! I told you to get out of there!” Xialing shouted at you and threw her arms to the side, finally revealing why she was giving you the cold shoulder.

You couldn’t believe her, “and leave you, Shang-Chi, and Katy behind?” your brows furrowed as you balled your fists, “I’m not the kind of person who does that.”

“You could have gotten out safe and sound, and not get dragged to this prison if you had just listened to me!” the cavernous room echoed back her voice, amplifying the heated emotions of your fight at least two-fold.

“I know how to hold my own in a fight! I wasn’t going to let the three of you get killed!” Xialing was always more comfortable than you around the concept of death. In the 4 years that you’ve been working together, you rarely were the one to finally take someone’s life. Sure, you helped orchestrate it and handled many of the logistics, but it was never you snapping a neck or pulling a trigger. Xialing handled much of that.

“Are you sure?” Xialing asked scathingly, “because in all of the years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you fight.”

“Because you always insisted you didn’t want me to get hurt!”

“You said you didn’t want to fight!”

“I said I didn’t want to fight in a live-streamed match for all the dark web to see!”

She let out a scream of frustration, “it doesn’t matter our past anymore, because all of us are stuck in this soul-sucking prison that I tried to escape all of those years ago. I didn’t want you to get caught up in my mess.”

“I’m already so much more tangled up in it than you know.” You added scathingly. You didn’t wait to hear her reaction though as you spun around and walked away. Realistically you wouldn’t get very far, but at least you wouldn’t be within kicking distance of each other. Of course, the two of you got into disagreements in the past, but this argument seemed to hit a bit harder than your past ones. Probably because it touched so much more on the backgrounds of both of you. Something neither of you really talked about that much. She was determined to leave her father behind and not think about him or the Ten Rings at all. You? Well, you simply didn’t want to tell her your origin story.

You turned the corner (honestly surprised that this cell even had enough space to have a corner) and was surprised to see two people looking back at you. Surely, they heard your entire fight. “Um, hi Katy.” You gave her a shy wave, “who’s this?”

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