The next day Kuai Liang began talking of preparations to return to the Lin Kuei temple. Hanzo would not hear of it. He straight up told him that Kuai was not going anywhere in his present condition. Kuai teased that he did not realise he must have his 'guardian's' permission to leave. Hanzo, predictably, did not see the amusing side of this, and still refused. Kuai resigned himself to at least a day or two's more rest.

Kuai spent much of it meditating and practising slow kata on the lake of ice. Hanzo occupied himself with cutting wood and hauling it across the ice. He built all the fires, prepared all the food and fished though holes cut in the lake. He was fascinated by Kuai Liang's forms, so like those he practised himself, and yet so different. Kuai moved with the ice beneath him as though they were one and the same. The slow flowing movements of his arms showered keen frosts that glittered through the air as diamond rain. The stiff pain of his injury was all but gone when his feet slid across ice with perfect control. Hanzo saw that there was an affinity and peace to Kuai's unity with his element – something very different from the pact he had made with fire to burn within him.

Hanzo enjoyed the distracting manual labour. When he ran out of tasks he would practise his own forms with a vicious vigilance. He practised kata empty hand, then with katana, then a chain weapon form. He ran them all back to back until the sweat shook down his back. He bathed in icy waters and would only then retire to shiver before a large fire.

Kuai often invited him to meditate with him, but Hanzo always had an excuse ready. Kuai let this go, but on the evening of the next day pressed him on this.

"Hanzo, why will you not sit and be still with me?"

"You know why."

"But... you have done so much to free yourself from the grasp of your past over the last few days."

"It's for precisely this reason that I do not want to join you. When I am occupied my mind does not linger on the past."

Kuai sighed,

"This is true, but neither does it let you confront it, and be at peace with it."

"I am not ready."

"I think you would be surprised."

"I do not want to be surprised. I want to be ready. I will deal with peace when I come to it."

"Hanzo," Kuai said gently and with endearment that surprised Hanzo, "Peace must be made. Our time in this haven, away from the world, is limited. While I am here and can help you, will you not try?"

Hanzo looked uneasy,

"Perhaps, in a moment. First, I must-" Hanzo caught a look from Kuai that was not about to settle for procrastination. A familiar dark frown formed on Hanzo's brow and he relented. They seated themselves on the platform beneath the brim of the shrine's upcurled roof.

"Now," Said Kuai, "Do not try to forget. Do not try to remember. Do not try to think. Only be."

Rumours of snowflakes increased in the cool air. They pondered the space between the two old enemies in a slow turning serenade. The cold curled down the nape of Hanzo's tunic and he shivered. His frown set deeper and with it, ancient concerns coiled and collected in his chest.

"Let the thoughts that fly into your mind turn as though on a current and pass back out from you. Know them, but do not let them control you." Kuai's voice was gentle and slow like cold water that is sluggish with ice floats. Hanzo closed his eyes, breathed in through his nose and slowly out through his mouth. His features darkened as bitter remorse clawed itself up from the places he had been suppressing. His mouth twitched and curled. The silence that spawned in the space after Kuai Liang's voice was rigged with unsettled scores and hatreds. His open palms balled into fists. Only when he heard Kuai's voice again did he breathe out and try again.

"The things you wish to become – keep these close to you – these you must strive for and may direct your passion toward – there is no chasing that from one like you. But the rest – the things that hurt you – they are composite. Take them apart. Your fear of deception, your desperate need for vengeance, your guilt, your grief, your violence, your pride – they are all one part love and and one part hatred. Let the hatred pass. The love may remain – hold it dear to you. It will hurt. It will be a great sorrow to you – agony even. But it will not be empty, and it will not control you."

Hanzo's eyes were shut but his teeth ground together.

"I do not want to loose them. My vengeance is all I have of them."

"That is not so, Hanzo Hasashi. You carry them with you. You grieve them because in caring for them you gave some of yourself to them, and they to you. Your pain is because part of you has died with them. But so also does some of them, and their care, live on in you. Will you dishonour their love by living only for death?"

"What of Bi-Han? I have wronged him and I cannot take that back."

"In killing Bi-Han you killed also a small part of all those who loved him. I forgive you for this, Hanzo. But, you also, must forgive those who inflicted pain upon you."

"I cannot forgive Quan Chi! I will not. He persists to torment others and whilst he lives I cannot rest."

"At present, it is not Quan Chi that I am thinking of."

"Who then?"

Kuai was silent. Hanzo fidgeted in frustration. Kuai took pity on him.

"Yourself, Hanzo."

Kuai did not know what passed for Hanzo in the time that followed just after this. He did not know if his words reached him, if he knew peace, if he came to terms with any of the myriad burdens that plagued his soul. He did not ask either, for there are some things that must be done alone. He saw shadows pass across his face, as if the Shirai Ryu warrior saw scenes played out on the others side of those close eyes. At times he tensed and at others he relaxed. At times he seemed to be in great pain, and at others seemed to accept this fact without suffering as a consequence. In one moment his hands would ball into such tight, white fists, that Kuai almost expected them to blaze into fire as they had done of old. Moments like these moved on however, and Hanzo would reopen his hands, and breathe more freely again.

Kuai sat with him through all of this, silent but present. The snow made light blankets all about them, and after a while even consented to cover them also. It fell upon Kuai's folded knees and cupped palms. It never melted when it touched his skin but rested there. It clouded him in pure white, joining him to everything around him in a peaceful unity.

The snow melted on Hanzo, as if recalling the fire in his veins. It would not settle on his shifting shoulders or tensing muscles. When it melted though, it ran as quiet water, and moved down his face as though it were tears.

They did not speak the rest of that evening, but instead performed every task they needed two in dual silence, each knowing what needed to be done, and fulfilling it.

.

The next day when Kuai got up, a little of the cramp of his mending muscles had subsided. He slowly rotated the joint and moved his arm this way and that. He checked the wound and saw it had a new dressing upon it. This troubled him. He felt a prick of anxiety in the back of his throat at the vulnerability he must have been exposed to. His thoughts skipped to the idea of Scorpion, whose hands he had suffered at countless times, alone and unchecked next to his unconscious form. He pulled on his robes and slipped on his boots. When he stepped outside the fire was not lit and no tea and breakfast awaited him. Hanzo sat in complete stillness, the charcoal shades of his hair and clothes a stark contrast to the complete still empty white of the world beyond. Kuai looked at his face. It was stern and focussed, but controlled and free of anger. Something stilled in Kuai on watching him. His concerns fell away and he decided to leave the matter of his wound dressing. Instead, he knew it was time to bring up leaving again. A strange thing happened however. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Hanzo, with eyes shut and limbs unmoving, spoke.

"I did not wish the life of the Shirai Ryu upon my son. I intended to stand between him and the assassin's path when the time came. As my father did for me when he forbade me from joining." Kuai looked over at him. Fierce dark eyes opened and set Kuai with their usual intensity, "I am glad my son did not grow up to follow in my footsteps. I would rather wish death upon him than to follow my fate."

Kuai shifted uncomfortably and reached a hand automatically to the shoulder the kunai had shredded,

"You're life has had some rather unique and unpleasant caveats to it, Hanzo. Being Shirai Ryu is only a small part of that."

"No. It is the source of my troubles. The pride it set in me, the feuds I inherited from it... It is inevitable that my son would have taken on that mantle also. Perhaps he would have sought to kill you, Kuai Liang. Probably under easily-manipulated but ultimately misled circumstances, much like his father."

"Well," Kuai was still half asleep and worn down both from his injury and nearly a week of Hanzo's abrasive company, "As it is, I am alive and well and here to tell his father stand up and look his new chance for life in the face instead of always brooding over a past that is gone."

"I do not brood!" And like that the peace of meditation was folded away into stubborn arms.

"Hanzo Hasashi." Kuai said matter of factly, "You are brooding about not brooding."

Hanzo glared at him.

"Now, tell me straight," Kuai sat down heavily beside him and leaned his back against wood of the hut, "When we depart this place, what will you do?"

"I w-"

"And don't talk about Quan Chi. I mean in the long term. With your life."

Hanzo scowled at him.

"I will think on that when I come to it."

"Think on it now, Hanzo, so that you remember why you live and so that your vengeance does not reclaim you again."

Hanzo ground his teeth in irritation. He looked away and thought for some time though.

"I will come back here. And pledge my life to protect you. In recompense for the murder of one brother, I will protect the other."

Kuai blinked.

"That... won't be necessary. I am Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei now. I have many followers, and few enemies now that the cyber initiative has been shut down... and now that my nemesis is no longer hell bent on killing me."

Hanzo was unimpressed.

"My honour demands it."

"You have your life returned to you. Rebuild it, please! Live again!"

Hanzo was quiet again, this time for a long while. Finally he looked up and a light was ablaze in his eyes,

"You are right. After I have killed Quan Chi, I will rebuild. I will rebuild the Shirai Ryu in honour of my fallen kin. I shall bring back our tradition and make it strong enough to rival even the Lin Kuei's power. The world will know our name again and fear to cross us."

"Hanzo, that is not what I had in mind-"

"And I shall do this in addition to swearing a personal oath to protect you, Kuai Liang. If I hear of any person laying a hand on you, they will answer to me. They will know that they have crossed Scorpion and they will know that vengeance will be mine!"

Kuai shook his head in resolute exasperation.

.

He knew Hanzo was loathe to leave this place. He could see it in the reluctance of his movements and his stubborn glares just tipped with fear. He did not object this time however and Kuai had them collect up all their belongings. When all was made ready, Kuai turned to him. All Kuai Liang's thoughts and words were prepared just then and on his lips. He had comfort ready, reprimand, gracious thanks, requests, unspoken promises and eager plans. He opened his mouth to speak them.

"You're not taking a pack, by the way." Hanzo Hasashi cut through his intentions, "There is no way you're carrying anything. Your inferior Lin Kuei strength needs time to build up. Leave the heavy lifting to a Shirai Ryu. I'll show you how it's done."

.

The End.

Thank you all for reading. I hope I broke your hearts. Or at least made you tear your hair out. They might be the same thing anyway. They probably are for Kuai Liang. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments, even if they're very brief :)

In early Egyptian monasticism it was said that bad thoughts fly to our minds from the outside and tempt us to dislodge what is naturally good within us. They believed that we are like rusty metal which is clouded over with the bad things we choose to be and do, but that by removing these from us, a natural gleam is restored within us and we may be cleaned of the dark things that cling to us.

One of the names for this process was κάθαρσις – catharsis.