The Stars Won't Hold Me Back, an untamed/陈情令 fanfic

The Stars Won't Hold Me Back

Lan Wangji kneels before the Lan Elders, on trial for aiding a war criminal's escape. But that is not what happened. Lan Wangji can tell injustice when he sees it, and Wei Ying had done no wrong. Lan Wangji would stand by the man he loves, even if everyone in the Galactic Union turned against them.

…

Written for Day 4 of WangXian Week. The possible prompts were "Chains | Healing | Futuristic AU"

Thanks to Alessariel for the beta, and helping me pick out a title!

…

The judgement hall was all cold metal, empty walls, echoing with every footstep, every clank of the cuffs that bound his wrists. At the far end were the Elders, seated in two semi-circles, one above the other. The guards marched down the long hallway, half dragging their charge, and stopped before the Elders. Without being told or touched, the prisoner knelt on the hard, metal floor of the hall.

He did not bow his head.

"Lan Wangji," one of the Elders intoned, his voice reverberating off the walls. "You have been brought here on charges that are most dire."

Every pair of eyes in the room was on him, and not a single set held a drop of sympathy.

"You have aligned yourself with the war criminal Wei Wuxian."

…

"Lan Zhan!"

A force collided with Lan Wangji's back, but he had been prepared for it and did not stumble. Laughing, Wei Wuxian spun to stand in front of Lan Wangji.

"How do I look?" he asked, his smile infusing his tone with light.

His long black hair was tied up in a high ponytail by a flowing red ribbon. He struck a pose to show off his pristine, brand new military robes. They were a deep purple color with black piping and pink accents. The military robes of the Jiang family.

Lan Wangji nodded. "Mm. Like a member of the Jiang family."

The words caused a pleased flush in Wei Wuxian's cheeks. Being adopted, with no noble name or status of his own, Wei Wuxian always worried that he was not viewed as a real member of his family. It was the best compliment Lan Wangji could give him.

Still beaming, Wei Wuxian reached into the pocket of his draping sleeve and pulled out—something. It was an octagon shaped box with lights that blinked on and off at seemingly random intervals.

"This is my newest invention. Isn't it neat?" Wei Wuxian gushed. He stepped into Lan Wangji's personal space—much farther than he could ever conceivably need to be—to show off the device. "It picks up core wakes in the space around a ship, so you can find where another ship has been and follow its trail! If you hook it up to the ship's navigational mainframe, it'll even map it out for you like a Galactic Positioning System!"

That would be infinitely helpful in the war. The Wen ships had greater lightspeed capabilities due to the strength of their golden ship cores—a level far higher than any other galactic family had cultivated—so they were always escaping battles or sneaking more soldiers into guarded areas without notice. With such a device, the rest of the Galactic Union could find the Wen ships anywhere in space.

"Have you shown this to your father?"

Wei Wuxian's expression turned meek and he lowered his hands to his sides. "No."

"Why not?" It would get him a lot of recognition, and possibly earn the respect of the rest of the GU.

Pressing his lips together, Wei Wuxian slipped the box back into his sleeve pocket. "I haven't exactly figured out how to turn it off and on yet. Once you install it, you can't make it stop showing every core wake it picks up." With a giant, heaving sigh, he said, with air quotes, "Jiang Cheng says that would lead to 'hazardous driving.'"

A small smile pulled at Lan Wangji's lips, but Wei Wuxian was too busy pouting into the distance to notice. "You will figure it out, Wei Ying."

…

"For his many inventions in the realm of battle technologies, and his innovating war tactics, the Jin family, on behalf of the entire Galactic Union, is proud to present Wei Wuxian with this medal of commendation."

Wei Wuxian elbowed Jiang Cheng in the side with a shit-eating grin before he composed himself into the perfect example of a soldier and walked with an air of calm detachment toward the raised dais. Everyone in the grand auditorium, with its three suspended levels and thousands of seats, clapped as Jin Guangyao—the illegitimate son of the head of the Jin family—presented Wei Wuxian with his award. It hung from the arm of his Jiang family military robes and looked very impressive, but it could not match Wei Wuxian's smile in shine.

He bowed to Jin Guangyao, then to the section of the auditorium where the rest of the Jin family was seated, then to his own family, the Jiangs. Lastly, he turned and threw a wink in Lan Wangji's direction. Beside Lan Wangji, though he did not falter in his clapping, Lan Xichen gave a soft laugh.

"He is very forward, isn't he?" Lan Xichen asked as the clapping tapered off.

Jin Guangyao continued with the presentation of the next medal even as Wei Wuxian made his way back to his seat with his siblings. Unless he heard his own name, Lan Wangji didn't care. Wei Wuxian and his siblings were leaning close to each other, whispering excitedly and with large smiles on their faces, and taking turns admiring the medal—until Madam Yu, the Jiang matriarch, quietly berated them into silence.

"I think you envy how open he can be," Lan Xichen continued, seeing where his brother's gaze was fixed.

Lan Wangji nodded. "I do."

Despite Wei Wuxian openly courting Lan Wangji for most of the Sunshot War, their relationship had hardly progressed and nothing was official yet. It might be them getting married next year, not Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan—the heirs of their respective families—if only Lan Wangji were half as brave as Wei Wuxian.

…

In the judgement hall, another Elder took up the call of listing Lan Wangji's many failures. She looked down her nose at him as if the very sight of him made her feel dirty.

"Lan Wangji," she began. "You have forsaken the teachings of your childhood and broken the sacred laws of your family."

The laws that had been drilled into every Lan child since the day they could read. Do not commit evil acts. Do not lie. Do not gossip. Do not be lazy. Be courteous to others. Follow the path of justice. Love all beings. Do not run. Do not show excessive emotion. Do not make excessive noise.

Lan Wangji narrowed his eyes at the woman—condemning her without words of breaking many of those laws herself.

…

"Wei Wuxian! Stop running!"

The shout was followed by excited laughter, and then a blur of activity rushed by the window of the library. Lan Wangji did not look up from his computer screen or the words displayed there. A minute later, one of the Lan adults in charge of lectures paused outside the window and peered in.

"Ah. Lan Wangji. Have you seen Wei Wuxian?" the man asked.

He didn't say what he was looking for Wei Wuxian about—that he was in trouble for running. Though, Lan Wangji noted silently, the adult should be in trouble for shouting as well. And the adult was of the Lan family. They knew better.

Lan Wangji pointed out the window. "He went that way."

The adult Lan looked off in the direction Lan Wangji had pointed. He gave an inclination of his head. "Thank you. I will leave you to your studies."

No sooner had the footsteps of the adult faded away did Lan Wangji turn his gaze toward the far corner of the library.

"He is gone."

There were curtains in the corner, blocking off a small, soundproof room filled with books that were off limits to all but the head of the family and their advisors. Yet, at Lan Wangji's call, the curtains shifted and a head of wild black hair poked out.

Grinning, the boy said, "Thanks for that!"

There was something undeniably cute about the boy. His limbs were too long for his body and he was as awkward as anyone at eleven could be, and yet he was still pleasant to look at. There was something free about him that did its best to draw Lan Wangji in.

Lan Wangji turned his eyes back to his screen. "If you don't want a punishment, you should not break the rules."

Pouting, the boy crossed his arms and stomped over to where Lan Wangji sat. "There are too many rules," he complained. "How is anyone supposed to have any fun if they follow every rule?"

"The rules are not about fun," Lan Wangji corrected, tapping the screen to flip to the next page in the text. "They are to maintain proper behavior and morals in a galactic age."

"You sound like a rulebook yourself," the boy continued to complain, though he laughed about it. He plopped down on the seat beside Lan Wangji and held out a hand. "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Wei Wuxian. But before I was adopted by Master Jiang, I was Wei Ying. You can call me that since we're gonna be friends."

Lan Wangji regarded the outstretched hand with indifferent eyes but a jumping heart. Friends? Had any of the children of the Galactic Union ever considered him a friend? They all said he was too stoic and boring.

He must have taken too long to respond, because Wei Wuxian pulled his hand back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Or not, I guess. Whatever. Doesn't matter to me. I'll go find Nie Huaisang and play with him instead." He jumped up and headed for the window. There he stopped and turned back. "I don't need a rulebook for a friend, anyway."

He stuck his tongue out petulantly before hopping through the window and disappearing.

…

The annual G.U. Gala was going strong. The heads of each family, their spouses, their children, their cousins, their top advisors, and anyone else they invited were strutting about in the latest fashions, drinking liquor imported from the farthest reaches of the galaxy and eating food made with the most expensive ingredients. For someone who spent several years of his childhood scrounging for scraps on an outpost station, the spread of food and wine should have been more than enough to entice Wei Wuxian. But the conversation was all politics.

Whose child was courting who. Which family had earned money or lost it. The latest scandals. Who had found favor with one of the Big Five families and who had lost it. Deals were made and handshakes shared, and Wei Wuxian was bored of it.

To avoid showing favor to any one family, the Gala was always hosted on a giant cruiser ship. A series of fancy suites built around an extravagant ballroom. Wei Wuxian wanted to leave the party, but there was absolutely no way he was going back to his room already. The night was still young!

That was what he said every year that he was found programming suite doors to make horrendous noises whenever the occupant tried to unlock it, or riding a serving cart down the hall, or breaking into the bridge to bother the pilot and captain.

Lan Wangji also grew bored of the party quickly each year, but he preferred the quiet of the observation deck to causing mischief. It was a long room along one side of the cruiser in which the ceiling and walls were made of glass. Only the floor and the one wall attached to the rest of the ship assured people that they weren't about to go floating off into space.

It was quiet on the observation deck. And usually, it was empty.

That year, Lan Wangji entered the observation deck to find Wei Wuxian already inside, lying flat on his back and staring up at the stars. He glanced back at Lan Wangji at the sound of the door.

"Lan Zhan!" he greeted brightly, waving without getting up. "I knew you would show up eventually."

Lan Wangji cast his eyes around briefly, looking for any sign of a prank or game, but the observation deck was the same as it always was. A few lounge chairs scattered here and there, some benches along the visible wall, but otherwise the space was open and empty.

Eventually he gave a hum of greeting and Wei Wuxian laughed. Then he patted the ground beside him. "Lay with me."

And lay with him Lan Wangji did. They had grown close over the years—so far from their first meeting in the Lan family library. Every meeting between the families, every guest semester in another family's territory, every holiday spent abroad. Though Wei Wuxian had many friends, and Lan Wangji through him had become friendly with the children of the other families, he always boasted that he was Lan Wangji's best friend, and vice versa.

The stars above them were countless, extending endlessly into the distance, beyond the sight of mortal men. The ship hummed under their heads, but the sounds of the party were nonexistent. In those moments, they were the only two people that existed in the entire galaxy.

"I heard there might be a war against the Wen family."

Lan Wangji turned his head to look at Wei Wuxian, but Wei Wuxian kept his gaze on the stars.

"Crazy, right? I mean, they deserve to lose their power. They're awful. But a war? A galaxy wide war? When was the last time that happened?" he mused, his hands twitching where they rested on his stomach, like he wanted to gesture with them but was restraining himself.

"Before the Galactic Union was formed, there was a war," Lan Wangji reminded him.

Wei Wuxian snorted and finally turned to look at him. "Yeah, like, hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Not now."

Silence fell around them again, but they kept looking at each other. If there was a war, would they see each other again? These parties certainly wouldn't happen during a conflict. Neither would school, though they had just about grown out of that anyway. If there was a war, would one of them die?

There was a strange look on Wei Wuxian's face that Lan Wangji couldn't figure out. Then, "I'm going to marry you."

Lan Wangji jerked back in surprise, though he didn't move far on the floor.

Wei Wuxian rolled onto his side, his arms flailing as much as possible as he rushed to explain. "I mean, not right now, obviously! I'll court you first! Courting is super important in noble families, right? I'm not gonna force you to marry me or anything. I'll do it properly and you'll agree because you've fallen head over heels and can't imagine life without me. That's what I meant!"

Which did nothing to stop the hot flush turning Lan Wangji's ears—and probably his entire face—red as the Rosette Nebula.

"Wei Ying."

Wei Wuxian sat up abruptly enough to make Lan Wangji go silent again. "If I'm gonna do this, I gotta start it right. Where's your brother? Dumb question. The ballroom, right?" He stood. "I'll go tell him my intentions. Or wait, your father is still head of the family, not your brother. I need to talk to your father." He shuddered. "He likes me, right? It'll be fine."

Before Lan Wangji could do more than stand up, Wei Wuxian had raced from the room like his shoes were rockets. He stared at the closed door to the observation room with wide eyes.

Did he just get engaged? Sort of?

…

A third Lan Elder took up the charge, his voice booming so deeply that his words were hard to make out.

"You have assisted enemies of the Galactic Union and allowed them to escape into unregulated space," he accused.

The man's gaze moved from one Lan Elder to the next, as if to check that they were all listening to him speak. For the few moments he was speaking, they had stopped staring contemptuously down at Lan Wangji to give him their attention.

Pleased, the deep-voiced Elder turned back to Lan Wangji. "Do you understand the danger your actions pose to your family and the rest of the galaxy?"

Chained and kneeling on the judgement room floor, Lan Wangji remembered the events that led to his arrest, only two days ago.

…

The Sunshot War was over. The awards had been given out. Peace had returned to the galaxy, with the heavy hand of the Wen family removed from the throats of the rest of the Galactic Union. Most of the Wen family members had been killed in the fighting or were in prisons on various planets. Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan had gotten married in an ostentatious yet beautiful ceremony. The Jin family was now the most powerful of the Big Four families, and the Jiang family prospered from the connection.

For eleven months, everything seemed to have gone back to the way it was before the war began. Except that Wei Wuxian was still sending him gifts and video messages and showing up unannounced to ask for dates with Lan Wangji. It was hugely embarrassing and yet endlessly endearing.

If Wei Wuxian would hurry up and ask him for his hand already, they could be married by now.

Then there was a party to put all the past parties to shame. A celebration of the one-year anniversary of the death of Wen Ruohan, the head of the Wen family and the mastermind behind all of their crimes against humanity. All the families gathered on the Jin family's home world of Lanling for the party.

Except Wei Wuxian didn't make it to the festivities…and neither did Lan Wangji. That day, he saw Wei Wuxian run to the space port, hop into a personal racer, and blast off into space. He didn't notice Lan Wangji following after. He didn't speak to anyone he passed. Something was very wrong.

Worried, Lan Wangji also took a racer and went after him.

Two hours later, they approached the planet of Qionqi. It was a planet for processing garbage from the Jin corner of the galaxy. A recycling planet. Only the machines that processed the garbage and the few humans who operated those machines lived there. What purpose could Wei Wuxian have to go there? And with so harried an expression?

By the time Lan Wangji had landed and found Wei Wuxian's destination, Wei Wuxian had blown a hole in the side of a building. As Lan Wangji approached the smoking wreckage, Wei Wuxian emerged from the dark interior once more.

His eyes widened at the sight of Lan Wangji. "Lan Zhan!" he gasped. "I—,"

From behind him came a soft cry—a child's cry—and then other people began to emerge from the building as well. Lan Wangji ran his eyes over every face—fifty in total—before looking back to Wei Wuxian.

"What is this?" he asked. "What are you doing?"

Expression remorseful and yet determined, Wei Wuxian motioned to the people behind him. Their clothing was dirty, as was their skin and hair. They were all thin, as if they had not eaten properly in a long time, and their eyes were sunken. There was a child that was barely two years old being held by a woman so old she must have been someone's great grandmother.

"The Jin family has been using them as slaves to clean up their garbage," Wei Wuxian informed him. "They've been making them take apart and process the ships of the Wen family without even removing the bodies inside first."

The revulsion in his voice was matched by the sickness the words bred in Lan Wangji's own stomach. The people behind Wei Wuxian kept their eyes on the ground, but Wei Wuxian's statement had two of them breaking into tears.

"And today I heard that rat, Jin Zixun, saying they were going to use them as target practice in their next military drills," Wei Wuxian growled. "You can't expect me to just sit back and let that happen. I won't!"

For a moment, Lan Wangji was stunned into silence. The war against the Wen family had happened due to their mistreatment of the people living on the planets under their jurisdiction. Crimes against humanity. Yet here the Jin family was, repeating those atrocities.

"Wei Ying—"

There was a trill from Lan Wangji's wrist and he lifted his communicator to answer the call. Lan Xichen, now head of the Lan family, appeared. "Wangji. Are you on Qionqi?" He must have traced his communicator.

"Mm."

Lan Xichen pressed his lips together. "We just sent a troop of soldiers that way. Guangyao said there were Wen remnants using the planet as a base of operations."

With a frown, Lan Wangji turned so his brother could see the pitiful state of the people behind Wei Wuxian. "They are prisoners. Not soldiers. Stop the attack."

"I will try. But you need to leave, just in case."

Cutting communication, Lan Wangji turned to Wei Wuxian. "Let's go."

Without asking, Wei Wuxian knew he didn't mean just the two of them. He nodded and began leading the Wen prisoners around the piles of trash and recycling machines, toward a large building on the other side of the compound. It was a hangar where the cargo ship was held.

Along the way, they encountered a pair of Jin workers, but they weren't trained soldiers and were easy enough to incapacitate. When they reached the hangar, Wei Wuxian cursed.

"The ship isn't flight ready."

There had been no shipments planned, so the cargo ship had no fuel and had its landing gear secured to the ground. A ping from Lan Wangji's wrist alerted him that the troop of soldiers was already at Qionqi. Lan Xichen had attempted to call off the attack, but the Lan Elders had overruled him. The Wen survivors were a threat and could not be allowed to live.

"Get the ship ready and leave," Lan Wangji said, already heading for the door once more.

"What?" Wei Wuxian looked up from where he was releasing one of the landing gears' legs. "Lan Zhan, where are you going?"

Lan Wangji's hand was on the door. "I will buy you time."

Then he was gone, Wei Wuxian's voice shouting protests behind him. But Lan Wangji knew he would do the right thing. He would get the prisoners to safety. Lan Wangji had a personal racer with limited fighting capabilities, but he was one of the Lan family's best warriors. He would protect them until they were safe.

…

During that fight, Lan Wangji had attempted to explain to his fellow Lan what was going on with the prisoners, but they had not listened. Afterward, when he saw his brother, Lan Xichen explained that he had met with Jin Guangyao and expressed concerns about the Wen being prisoners and not soldiers. To his dismay, Jin Guangyao had known that when he ordered the attack. So had the Lan family Elders.

And now Lan Wangji knelt before those same Elders, listening to them condemn him for saving the people they had enslaved for no other reason than a last name. Forsaking everything the Lan family had stood for for hundreds of years. Attacking the character of the man Lan Wangji loved, and who was braver, and better, and more justified than everyone in the judgement hall put together.

"Do you understand, Lan Wangji?" the deep-voiced Elder asked again.

Lan Wangji glanced at the floor, the cool metal so shiny he could nearly see the Elders reflected in it. He took a deep breath. There would be no going back after this. Lifting his gaze, he met the deep-voiced Elder's eyes and spoke, his voice as cold as the floor.

"I understand that this family is willing to turn its back on the sacred laws if it benefits their position in the Galactic Union. I understand that they turned a hero into a criminal to suit their own agenda. I understand that the actions they took were wrong, and it was the correct action to stand against that injustice."

Jin Guangshan had promised them money and power in exchange for their silence on the matter of the Wen and, like the greedy sycophants they were, they had taken it.

The Elders gasped in shock and looked among each other, unsure how to respond to his speech—his accusations.

A woman on the far end of the lower semi-circle asked, "Are you admitting to your crimes and saying you will not repent?"

Lan Wangji met her eyes now. "I will not apologize for doing what is right."

For several moments, the Elders murmured amongst themselves, their voices overlapping. They kept their voices from getting loud, as per the Lan rules, and did not let their tones grow brittle in anger, but their voices still gave away their intentions. Lan Wangji would not walk away from this unscathed.

Finally, they quieted down. The Elder in the center of the lower semi-circle spoke. "You shall receive your punishment immediately," he said. "A lash of the discipline whip for every family member you injured in your attack."

The troop had contained fifty soldiers. Fifty lashes. The electricity behind the whip would sting almost as much as the material of the whip itself. He would be terribly injured but would not die, and if he wanted the medication to heal enough to be of any use as a soldier later…he would need to do as they said.

"And a place in the cold chambers until such a time as you ask forgiveness for your crimes."

…

The cold chambers were exactly what their name described. A room barely big enough for a seat that was kept just warm enough that the prisoner inside would not die of the cold. Lan Wangji received his lashes and then was sat upon the chair in the middle of the cold chamber and shackled in place. The shackles were not made of metal due to the cold of the room, but the braided material was thick and strong enough to hold anyone placed within.

They could keep him there forever. He would not ask forgiveness. In fact, the longer he sat with time to think, the angrier Lan Wangji grew.

The Lan Elders and the Jin family must be the ones to ask forgiveness. It was them that had committed the crime. If he ever got out of the cold chamber, he would find a way to make them repent.

It was so cold that Lan Wangji's body grew numb. His back stung with every breath; his lash wounds not properly cared for before he was placed in the room. He meditated to center himself and ward off the pain and cold, but it only worked so much.

Every few hours, someone came to ask if he would ask forgiveness. Every few hours, Lan Wangji glared at them so fiercely they hurried away.

…

Some indeterminable time later, there was a disturbance outside of the cold chamber. At first Lan Wangji paid it no mind—until something hit the door of his room.

There was a low buzzing noise, then a clack, and the lock on the door popped out of its place and clattered to the floor. The door was pulled open and Wei Wuxian stood in the light from the hall, sweat on his forehead and Jiang robes switched for ones of black and red.

"Lan Zhan!"

He raced the two steps to Lan Wangji and grabbed his shoulders. Lan Wangji hissed at the heat of his hands, but Wei Wuxian misunderstood. With a jolt, he moved to look at Lan Wangji's back.

"Oh my god," he breathed out. "Come on. We're getting you out of here and fixing your back."

As he worked to unshackle Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian muttered about brutal practices and beasts masquerading as men. His vitriol made Lan Wangji smile. His love was so passionate.

"You're smiling. You must be delirious."

The last of the chains fell away. "Maybe," Lan Wangji allowed, rubbing his wrists where they had been shackled. "Let's go."

Escaping was not hard. Wei Wuxian had disabled the alarms on his way in, so no new soldiers rushed in to stop them and he had already incapacitated most of the ones already in the prison. There was evidence of his technical tampering all over. Doors that were glitching to open and shut and open and shut. Cameras that were off or turned in completely the wrong direction. The cleaning bots were running into the wall repeatedly. And every door on their way out was unlocked.

Outside of the prison, the sky was dark. That was a surprise. Lan Wangji had been certain the night had already passed. Maybe he was more delirious than he had thought.

Wei Wuxian led Lan Wangji away from the prison, down the mountain the prison was situated on. After ten minutes, they had gone around several bends and outcroppings and reached their destination. A two person shuttle hidden in the brush. Wei Wuxian lifted the doors open and sat Lan Wangji down in the back seat. Then he shuffled around in the storage compartment and pulled out a medical kit.

"This will hurt, but it's the best I can do until we're back on the Chenqing," he warned with a wince, as if he were the one in pain.

Lan Wangji nodded and he got to work. Lan Wangji's hands were shaking as he warmed up in the night air and he watched them shiver as Wei Wuxian began applying the healing spray. It stung, but not so much that Lan Wangji couldn't handle it.

"The Chenqing?" he asked.

Still working, slowly, Wei Wuxian said, "The cargo ship we stole. I named it the Chenqing." Though Lan Wangji could not see his face, he heard the smile. "Explaining my actions, you know? I'm doing this because it's what's right, and anyone who pays any attention will see that."

Finally finished with the spray, Wei Wuxian ensured Lan Wangji was comfortable before moving to the front seat. Then he paused.

"You…do want to come back with me, right?" he asked. "I could take you anywhere you want, if not, but—"

"I want to go with you," Lan Wangji assured him. "You are courting me, after all."

Wei Wuxian let out a startled laugh. "That's right. I am."

He started up the shuttle and took off, flying low for a while before taking to the air so they would be less likely to be picked up on anyone's system. Wei Wuxian didn't relax until they had left the planet Gusu far behind with no sign of anyone following them.

They would need to stop to resupply their shuttle if they were going anywhere farther than one planet away. Two-seater shuttles were not designed for long distance interplanetary travel, after all. But Wei Wuxian had gotten to Gusu somehow. He would get them back to the ship in one piece.

"What will we do now?" Lan Wangji asked. "Hide?"

He didn't want to hide. He wanted to fight.

Wei Wuxian gave a small snort. "Hardly. The rest of the Wens and I already discussed it and everyone agreed." He turned to smile back at Lan Wangji. "We're gonna be space pirates and take the Jin for everything they own." The smile dimmed and his eyes hardened. "Gotta add the Lan to the list now too."

Lan Wangji nodded. "The Lan must repent."

He had fought in the Sunshot War against the injustices of the Wen. He would fight as a rebel outlaw against the injustices of the Wen and the Lan.

Wei Wuxian faced forward again, and for a few moments there was quiet. Lan Wangji began to drift off, his body begging for sleep after its arduous ordeal.

Then, "Oh. We have to rescue the others, too."

"Others?" Lan Wangji murmured.

A nod. "Wen Qing—she's a doctor and the one who's gonna heal your back—she told me about it. I've already hacked the Jin and confirmed it." His voice growled. "The Wen on Qionqi weren't the only prisoners they took. There are several planets where they've got Wen civilians at work as slaves. And we're gonna save them."

Far enough into falling asleep, Lan Wangji only hummed in agreement. He would follow Wei Wuxian wherever this path took them. To the edge of the galaxy and beyond. To the heart of the corruption in the Big Four families. But first, he would heal. First, he would ask Wei Wuxian to marry him. Then, no matter what, he would face it all with courage.

…

fin

…

If you like my writing style, check out my other fics and look me up on goodreads (Jessica M. Dawn) for more.

Also, the Rosette Nebula is a real thing. Look it up. It's pretty.