Archive of Our Own

The island is a very different place after the humans are all gone. Even here, close to where he'd arrived, away from the areas where most humans would have been allowed, Ye Zun can somehow feel the lack of them. Everything feels better without humans around.

Ye Zun laughs quietly at his own thoughts. Zhao Yunlan would likely tell him it's just his own biases talking, and Shen Wei would probably agree with him. Neither of them would be entirely wrong, Ye Zun has never made his dislike of humans much of a secret. He's glad the humans are gone.

That doesn't mean he wants to stay on this island with all the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, he hasn't quite found a way back to Shen Wei yet, even though he manages to reach a little further every time he tries. It leaves him tired and with a headache pounding just behind his eyes every time. He can't really spend as much time on it as he'd want to. Not if he still wants to be able to defend himself if necessary, or at least get himself out of harm's way. He can't exhaust his dark energy reserves, no matter how ready he is to leave the island behind.

At least now there's nothing stopping him from consuming the energy of a dinosaur if he needs to. The energy settles more easily than Ye Zun had expected it to, more easily than whatever he'd gotten from the humans. That's good.

During one of his breaks he finds Blue again. She's not all that far from the place Ye Zun prefers to stay actually. Sometimes, he regrets leaving behind the small apartment his employment had come with, but since the running water and electricity seem to both have malfunctioned, there's not much point in staying there anymore. He's far closer to the portal where he is.

It turns out Blue is alone now, just like him.

I'm sorry, he tells her sincerely. He hadn't meant for her siblings to die when they turned on their new leader.

It was my choice, she tells him, and he can feel no regret in her words. Ye Zun nods at her solemnly.

He's glad she doesn't blame him for it. He would regret losing her respect. And maybe more than that, he would regret not having someone to talk to. She might not be the easiest conversational partner, but it is better than complete solitude.

Ye Zun doesn't enjoy solitude.

It takes a while for him to realise that aside from him and the dinosaurs, there's still at least someone else on the island. And where there's one, there might be more. Perhaps not everyone made it to the evacuation.

He finds the kid entirely by accident. Ye Zun doesn't really wander around the place that much, but unfortunately, there's no fresh water all that close to the portal site and it's necessary for him to find water from further away.

He almost stumbles into the kid. If the kid wasn't quite so wrapped up in his own misery he probably would have noticed Ye Zun, but as it is, he doesn't. Ye Zun quickly steps into the shadows, making sure he won't be noticed. Then, for some reason he just keeps watching the kid. The kid seems to be managing well enough on his own. He doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger, even if he hardly seems very happy. There's nothing Ye Zun can do for him, really. He even has a baby dinosaur for company.

For some reason, he still keeps coming back to check on the kid. Just in case. The kid's routine doesn't change much, or at all, he eats and drinks and sleeps. Well, there's not much else to do, Ye Zun supposes.

At some point, Ye Zun goes back and the dinosaur that had been with the kid isn't there anymore. He wonders what had happened. The dinosaur had been small, nothing but a baby really, as far as Ye Zun could tell. He wonders what you call baby dinosaurs. Shen Wei would probably know.

He wishes he could show Shen Wei this place now that all the humans are gone. Shen Wei doesn't much like places where they keep the animals captive (neither does Ye Zun really), but he'd bet Shen Wei would love it now. He'd be fascinated by the dinosaurs.

It's pure chance that Ye Zun happens to be wandering past when the kid finally decides he's had enough of his routine and decides to leave. Or maybe he's decided long ago, it's not like Ye Zun stops by every day. The kid seems to be prepared for the confrontation with a very unfriendly and carnivorous dinosaur that's apparently in his way. Ye Zun isn't entirely sure why the kid has decided that's the way he wants to go, but he's sure he has his reasons.

There's a point where Ye Zun nearly steps in, because a spear against a very, angry, very large dinosaur hardly seems enough. But then the not-quite-so-small-anymore baby dinosaur is back, and the very large, very angry one is falling down a cliff. Ye Zun flinches at the sound it makes when it hits the ground.

Maybe he should have paid more attention to the dinosaur exhibition, it would be nice to know what any of them are called, Ye Zun muses as the kid and his dinosaur friend celebrate their victory.

"Good kid," Ye Zun mumbles under his breath. Mostly, because it's nice to hear someone speak every once in a while, even if it is just himself.

Then the kid and his dinosaur are hurrying away. Ye Zun takes a step after them like he might follow, before stopping himself. He needs to get back to the portal. He should be trying to reach Shen Wei. His dark energy has had enough time to recover by now.

At least this place has some ambient dark energy. It's easier to feel now that there aren't humans everywhere, polluting the place. It makes Ye Zun's recovery faster and he doesn't necessarily need to go hunting dinosaurs. Even if he can digest them, it's not exactly an entirely safe activity.

If there wasn't any dark energy here, it would be so much harder to get home.

He looks after the kid for another moment, as the kid hurries away. There's an odd feeling of—well, not exactly loss. It's not like he'd even talked to the kid.

Ye Zun scoffs. "Good luck, kid," he says out loud and turns away to return to his own work.

He hopes the kid will do okay.

Ye Zun's routine is just about as boring as the kid's had been before he decided to up and change it. Maybe Ye Zun should change his as well, but he can't. He needs to reach Shen Wei. He wishes Shen Wei would hurry up and find him already. As fascinating as some people might find an island full of dinosaurs, Ye Zun isn't all that interested. Even if he will take the dinosaurs over humans.

Since he'd found the kid, he's been aware of the potential of there being other humans left on the island, but if there are they're not anywhere close to where Ye Zun is. If there had been more humans, quite possibly the dinosaurs will have taken care of them by now. The thought makes something that might be guilt sting in Ye Zun's chest for a moment. He doesn't care about some nameless humans that might or might not ever have been there, but he feels a bit bad for that kid.

It's not like Ye Zun can do much for him now, however. He doesn't even know where the kid went, or if he's still on the island at all. Besides, he'd made friends with a dinosaur of his own, so he has someone to help him already. He didn't need Ye Zun's help.

When he hears the gunshots it's rather obvious that there are people on the island after all. Ye Zun should just ignore it, but he's bored, and while humans with guns are probably best avoided, they're at least something different. He'll just take a look at what's going on, he's not getting involved.

In the end, all that Ye Zun finds is the aftermath. There's one very eaten and thankfully adult human. There are the remnants of a snare trap. A rifle entirely bent out of shape. And when he looks further there's eventually an abandoned campsite. Whoever had been there seems to have left in a hurry.

That's where he finds the kids. Or where the kids nearly find him, because they turn up to look through the campsite too. Ye Zun very quickly makes sure they can't see him and then just watches.

One of the kids is definitely the same one that Ye Zun had been watching not that long ago. The dinosaur he's riding on is unmistakable. But now there are more children. Ye Zun didn't want to find more children.

They're not his responsibility, Ye Zun tells himself. Shen Wei would disapprove, he's sure, but Shen Wei isn't here and Ye Zun has no patience for humans. Besides, the kids don't look to be in any danger.

What will Shen Wei think when he finds you?

Ye Zun holds back a sigh. He's not getting involved. But he gets a bit closer to the kids anyway, making very sure that they don't see him. He gets close enough to hear them talking, at least he might find out what had been going on.

It takes some listening, because they don't conveniently happen to be talking about exactly what Ye Zun wants to know. But after a while, Ye Zun manages to gather that the children are stranded alone on the island. And whoever this campsite had belonged to might have had some means of getting off the island, but they along with the means of escape are very much gone now.

Ye Zun thinks about the body he'd found, and the gun. He considers the very unhappy tone of the kids whenever they mention any of the adults, and ends up drawing some conclusions.

That's what you get for trusting people, he thinks and can't quite deny the sympathy he feels for the kids at that moment. Well, he's pretty sure those humans aren't any threat to the kids any longer. Clearly, the kids can manage on their own and hardly need Ye Zun's help.

He wonders if they'd left that human in the trap on purpose. Ye Zun grins. Maybe he could learn to like these kids.

Apparently, the kids find less useful things than they might have wanted at the campsite. It does seem like something had gone through it before any of them had gotten there. And by something Ye Zun means most likely a herd of some kind of dinosaurs.

He follows the kids when they leave, just to satisfy his own curiosity. He should at least know where they're staying, so he can avoid them.

Kenji is aware that he's not the most observant member of their little group. Not that he's going to admit to that out loud anytime soon, but he's aware of it. Still, he's pretty sure he's not the only one who's taken entirely by surprise when there's suddenly a man there saying, "There's another one. That's where it went," in answer to the question of where the freaky, and very scary, dinosaur had gone.

Kenji stares at the guy. It's a bit too dark to be too sure of anything, the fire that had distracted the freaky monster dinosaur is almost entirely gone.

"Who're you?" he asks out loud.

"You were helping us just now," Darius says at the same time, also looking at the guy.

And okay, so maybe Kenji should have noticed the guy earlier then. But they'd all been a bit distracted trying not to die while the treehouse was attacked by some monster of a dinosaur. He is so done with Dr Wu's experiments. If he ever sees the guy again, he's going to tell him so. Definitely. And maybe like, kick him in the shins or something.

"Ye Zun," the guy says shortly, which is possibly his name because Kenji can't figure out what else it could mean. Then the guy just turns around and starts walking away, which is not what Kenji was expecting.

"Wait!" Darius says, taking a step after him, reaching out. Of course, it would be Darius, he thinks. But he's probably not wrong asking some questions. They all know better than to just trust some random adult showing up from nowhere. Kenji at least has learned better. He's pretty sure that Darius has too, because after maybe Brooklynn, he's definitely the smartest out of them all, so if Kenji has figured it out then Darius must have too.

But then, before anyone else has time to say anything, things get all… bad again. Because suddenly Sammy is kind of falling down, and then she's injured and probably dying, because the freaky monster dinosaur was shooting poisoned quills and they're stuck to Sammy's belly.

Thank god, Brooklynn remembers about the antidote, except it's not exactly close enough to help them right now and Sammy really isn't looking all that good. And sure Yaz is fast and all, but there's that thing (or two of them) out there and—

So yeah, they don't trust the guy—Ye Zun, or whatever he's called—but when he says he can help them with Sammy, they don't really have much choice, do they?

"At least I can keep her alive until you get the antidote," Ye Zun says, because of course they still need the antidote. Ye Zun takes a step closer to Sammy, and Kenji quickly moves out of the way.

As the rest of them watch he crouches down next to Sammy and sticks his hand on her, right where the quills had been. Then he closes his eyes and looks kind of… well, constipated, honestly. Sammy shakes, her eyes flying open for a moment, before closing again and she makes this horrible moaning sound.

Brooklynn has to stop Yaz from trying to pull Ye Zun away from her. And Brooklynn doesn't look too sure she's doing the right thing, which really doesn't make Kenji feel any better about any of it.

"I'm not… good at this sort of thing," Ye Zun says, sounding kind of annoyed and strained. "So, I suggest you find the antidote," he adds sharply. Well, he's not very friendly, is he? But he is helping. Maybe.

Yaz takes a step closer, and this time Brooklynn doesn't stop her. She mumbles Sammy's name, reaching out for her, even though she would really have to crouch down to actually reach.

Ye Zun looks up at her, and Kenji can't see the expression on his face, but he sounds a bit less annoyed when he says, "She might live without it." It's really not that reassuring, because it just reminds them all of the fact that Sammy is dying. But maybe the reminder is what they need because it seems to get everyone back to doing something.

Yaz gets this whole determined look on her face and she'd probably be gone already if Darius didn't suddenly ask, "How long can you keep her alive?" he stumbles over the last word, sounding grim and a bit shaky. Desperate, like all of them. Because they're just believing that this guy can do that just by touching Sammy.

But damn it, Kenji really wants to believe Ye Zun is doing something.

"Long enough," Ye Zun answers through gritted teeth. And he looks like he's doing something. Or at least like whatever he thinks he's doing is already making him tired.

And well, it's not that they have any choices here. Yaz takes off for the antidote and Ben and Darius leave to distract that thing—Scorpios Rex. And Kenji is just left there being useless, watching Ye Zun hold his hands against Sammy's belly while Sammy moans quietly, sweat beading on her forehead.

At least Brooklynn is there too, but she's sitting down next to Sammy and holding her hand and generally kind of ignoring Ye Zun while she tries to comfort Sammy. Kenji isn't even sure Sammy can hear them right now.

And then Brooklynn looks up at him. "Come here and help me," she says and Kenji's knees nearly give out as he slumps down, quickly sitting down next to them. It's weird and awkward with Ye Zun right there, just kind of ignoring them in return while he keeps doing whatever it is he's doing.

At some point, Sammy actually opens her eyes again. She looks all feverish and feels hot, and even with her eyes open, she doesn't really seem to be looking at them.

"Who… what?" she mumbles. And oh yeah, she's looking at Ye Zun. That makes sense.

"That's Ye Zun. He's helping you feel better," Brooklynn says. And yes! At least someone else had decided that has to be his name.

"Oh," Sammy answers and then her eyes slip closed, like she's too tired to keep them open. "That's nice," she mumbles.

Kenji really wishes there was something he could do that wasn't just sit there and be useless. He looks at Ye Zun, but the guy hasn't reacted at all. Kenji isn't even sure he noticed Sammy waking up. There's a few beads of sweat on his forehead too, and he wonders what the guy is actually doing. But Sammy had woken up, so maybe whatever it is is helping.

God, please let it be helping.

They're kind of arguing. Well, Yaz isn't, she's just holding onto Sammy. Who's very much alive and going to stay that way now that she's been given the antidote.

Kenji is kind of arguing too, except he's not even sure what he should be arguing for because none of them want to leave Ye Zun here and leave for the ship. He'd helped them save Sammy and then he'd just passed out. Now he's lying there unconscious while they argue and that doesn't feel right.

But Kenji was supposed to be packing earlier and he'd failed that and they were all late and— The ship is the only way off the island and they should leave before the storm breaks it and—

Kenji looks at Ye Zun. He's really out of it. Their argument hasn't done anything at all to wake him up.

"Kenji?" Darius asks, his hand suddenly on Kenji's arm.

Kenji shakes himself, realising that he'd just suddenly gone all quiet and started staring at Ye Zun instead of finishing whatever he was trying to say. He'd been saying that they need to leave, he thinks. Maybe.

He shakes his head. "We can't leave him," he says.

The others look at Ye Zun too.

"I don't want to abandon anyone here," Ben says quietly. Since Darius's hand is still on Kenji's arm, he feels him flinch a bit at that, but when he looks at Darius he looks like—well, not like nothing is wrong (because everything is wrong), but at least like Ben's words hadn't made him flinch like that.

It's not Kenji's business, but he hadn't realised— He thought Darius was over feeling guilty about Ben. But maybe he isn't.

"If there are two Scorpios Rex out there…" Darius says and then doesn't finish.

Kenji has no idea where he was going with that. "Yeah," he agrees anyway. It's bad either way.

Brooklynn crouches down next to Ye Zun, touching his forehead tentatively. She'd checked him over when he passed out. Before they started arguing. She said she thinks he's just tired.

"I don't know when he'll wake up," she says now, looking worriedly at Ye Zun. She doesn't want to leave him either. She and Kenji had been there, with Ye Zun and Sammy. They'd watched him get more and more tired, trying to save Sammy.

He'd been shaking by the end, gritting his teeth as he just kept on… doing whatever he was doing.

"Maybe you should try shaking him," Kenji says. He shrugs at the incredulous look Brooklynn gives him.

Anyway, that kind of stops the argument, even though it leaves Kenji a bit unsure about what they actually decided. But in the end, they don't go anywhere.

They've had some uncomfortable nights in this place, but Kenji thinks this one might be up there on the list. He doesn't think anyone sleeps all that much, worried and afraid. Well, he might have missed it if they do because he does sleep for a bit there, even if not that well.

When morning arrives, he still feels tired and bleary-eyed.

"You look about as good as I feel," he mutters at Darius, rubbing at his eyes. "Where's everyone?" he then asks, looking around. He can still hear the wind, unfortunately, the storm hasn't entirely passed while he slept.

With a grimace he thinks of the ship, and what the wind might have done to it. Someone should have gone to move it away from the pier, that would have been better. And by someone he means himself, since he's the only one who knows how to do that.

"With Ye Zun," Darius says.

"Right, yeah," Kenji says in realisation. Because they couldn't exactly manage to carry him up to shelter, they kind of had to get the shelter down to him. "Is he awake yet?"

"I don't know. I was finishing—"

"Packing," Kenji says, looking around. They'd done most of it before trying to sleep, but maybe Darius wanted to make sure they didn't forget anything.

They go down to check on everyone. They find Ye Zun sitting up, still looking a bit tired, and drinking from a cup someone has given him.

Well, that makes things easier.

They offer to take Ye Zun with them of course, it's not like they can just abandon someone else on the island, even if they don't fully trust him.

"No. I prefer to stay," Ye Zun says, quite firmly. Which is… Well, whatever. If he wants to stay, that's his business.

It makes Darius look at Ben with this weird look on his face. Yeah, Kenji isn't sure if it's Bumpy or something else entirely, but Ben hasn't really been that happy about leaving the island, has he? Hearing that someone else is planning on staying might be giving him ideas, and some of Ben's ideas are kind of weird to begin with.

No one tries to talk Ye Zun out of it though. Honestly, Kenji is okay with not having a stranger on the ship with them. It leaves them all kind of awkwardly silent though, until Ye Zun himself speaks up and offers to walk with them to the ship.

"In case it comes back," Ye Zun adds when no one exactly jumps on the offer. He doesn't really need to explain what he means by it.

"You're not… You just woke up," Brooklynn says with an awkward smile, clearly not wanting to say that the guy kind of looks like he might fall over if he stands up and he's probably just going to slow them down.

The look he gives her… Well, Kenji's pretty sure Ye Zun got the part she wasn't saying. He doesn't say anything, just gives his cup back to Sammy and then stands up. He doesn't fall over either, doesn't even wobble. Then he looks at them with this haughty look and lifts his hands up to fix his ponytail.

And suddenly Kenji notices the way he looks. Not the part where he's ridiculously hot, even if he has to be at least ten years older than Kenji, but the part where somehow his clothes—and just everything about him—are kind of clean and perfect. Maybe that just means he hasn't been here as long as they have (not that Kenji knows how long they've been here), but next to him they all suddenly look that much more ragged.

Somehow, no one says anything about Ye Zun slowing them down after that.

Kenji isn't sure how it happens, but somehow instead of going to the ship, they're going to go take care of the Scorpios Rex. Darius had made some kind of speech about how if it can reproduce then it's going to kill everything on the island because it just likes killing.

It's going to kill everything. Including anyone who stays on the island.

Kenji doesn't know why they couldn't just listen to Ye Zun when he said he could handle it. Okay, so Kenji isn't exactly convinced he could either (his trust in adults handling things has been severely diminished) but not everything has to be their problem.

Kenji wants to be angry about it. Hell, he is angry about it. But they all agreed that Darius probably has a point.

Someone should at least have gone to check the ship is okay. But with two Scorpios Rex—Scorpios Rexes?—out there no one is that eager to split up if they don't have to. And the storm and maybe the damn Scorpios Rex has made sure that the forest doesn't quite look like it used to and Kenji isn't even sure he could find his way there anymore.

Some people don't seem to be having any problems though. Namely Darius. Or Ye Zun. Who Kenji thinks they're kind of following. Not like secretly or anything, they're just kind of walking after him. Ye Zun really isn't happy about them coming along.

Doesn't that mean they should leave the guy alone? Not keep following him.

"Maybe I should ask Bumpy for help," Ben says suddenly, not sounding entirely sure.

Yeah, Kenji wouldn't want to ask his friend to face any Scorpios Rexes either. So why do his friends want him to do it?

Ye Zun looks at Ben and Kenji could swear he looks less annoyed and snooty than he does when he looks at the rest of them, which really doesn't make any sense. It's not like any of them have met Ye Zun before. There's no reason for him to like any of them better than anyone else.

"Bumpy?" Ye Zun asks. He still sounds a bit irritable. But still, he's stopped talking to the rest of them at all by now, so the fact that he's actually talking to Ben is still weird.

Ben straightens up a little, giving a quick little glare at the back of Ye Zun's head as he says, "My friend."

"The dinosaur," Ye Zun says matter-of-factly, which makes Ben falter a little.

"How do you know about Bumpy?" Brooklynn asks a moment later, not even hiding her suspicion.

Kenji frowns, wondering about what she's talking about, before finally realising that Ye Zun had shown up after Ben had left Bumpy with her herd and he couldn't have seen her. Not if he hadn't been watching them before all of this.

"The island isn't that big," Ye Zun says and then doesn't say anything more, not even when Darius asks him if he was stranded here during the evacuation too.

They don't stop to get Bumpy. Kenji isn't sure about how he feels about that. He wouldn't mind having a herd of ankylosauruses on their side.

The kids are annoying and Ye Zun is starting to wish he'd never set eyes on them in the first place. He'd exhausted himself keeping the girl alive and now— Now they won't even leave him alone to gather his strength.

The fact that they're following him because they might be worried he'll be killed by the—Scorpios Rex one of the kids had called it, he thinks—is beside the point. Ye Zun can handle it, once he recovers enough dark energy. Maybe he should stop to eat something, that would speed things up. But humans take too long to digest—and the only ones around are the children anyway. Eating a dinosaur is, Ye Zun has discovered, actually faster, their energy is closer to dark energy somehow, but he has a feeling the kids wouldn't be too happy about that. Some of them had been very upset about the dinosaur corpses the Scorpios Rex had left behind.

Not that the kids are wrong about the thing killing everything. No normal predator would behave the way this thing is behaving; killing everything it sees and leaving the bodies to rot. Animals don't behave like that, but people do, Ye Zun thinks, and doesn't say that to the kids either.

"This is the way to the old park," the youngest of the kids says suddenly, stopping in his tracks at the realisation. It makes all the other kids stop too. Ye Zun keeps walking. Maybe they'll all decide to stay behind.

"That's where the raptor is," one of the other kids says, nervously. Ye Zun has not bothered to remember their names. It would imply some level of attachment, which Ye Zun most definitely doesn't feel.

He's just making sure the kids stay alive so Shen Wei won't be annoyed at him once he finds Ye Zun. That's all.

(The one he'd been watching before, with the dinosaur friend, Bumpy—such a ridiculous name for a dinosaur—is called Ben. That's already more than Ye Zun wants to know.)

Ye Zun stops and turns around to look at the kids. "She will be more help with the… Scorpios Rex than any of you," he says. Because what can the kids do, other than serve as distraction for as long as it takes the Scorpios Rex to kill them? And then Ye Zun will still be left with another one of them to deal with.

Ye Zun, in honesty, had been planning to avoid any confrontation, but the children keep insisting. If they leave for the ship they say they have in the harbour, then none of this will be a problem. But they refuse to leave. So, if Ye Zun isn't yet fully recovered and the kids will only get themselves killed, then Ye Zun is determined to ask for help from someone who will at least stand some kind of chance.

"So, what's the plan then?" one of the boys asks defiantly. "We go and get eaten by a raptor instead?"

Ye Zun looks at him for a moment before turning away and starting to walk again. Maybe this time the kids will stay behind.

"She knows us. She might help," the youngest says like he's trying to convince himself of that.

A moment later they're all following him again, arguing among themselves this time. Even in this situation, stranded on an island, probably walking towards their deaths, they're still such teenagers.

Good for them.

(Ye Zun had never had the chance.)

He doesn't answer them even though they keep asking him questions. Then they start making plans of their own, even as they still keep following him.

He doesn't want to tell them that there isn't a plan. Not yet. He'll talk to Blue first and maybe they'll think of one together. And well, quite possibly the kids know a lot more about dinosaurs than Ye Zun does. Maybe their ideas aren't entirely useless.

Ye Zun has made better plans, but maybe something simple is best, all things considered. Get the attention of both Scorpios Rex and as they apparently can't stand the sight of each other they'll start fighting and then— Then the rest of them can kill them.

"How exactly—?" Ben asks when they get to that final part of the plan.

"Leave that to me and Blue," Ye Zun interrupts before he can finish the question.

Somewhere, he's certain, Zhao Yunlan would be laughing at him, volunteering to get into a situation like that. But Blue can't do it alone and the kids— No, the kids should stay out of the way. It's bad enough that they're going to be the ones getting the attention of the two Scorpios Rex and draw them to each other.

The words make everyone look at Blue, waiting some distance away. It's better not to get too close to her.

She makes a short screeching noise. Can we go now?

She's eager to get going. At least someone is looking forward to this.

You realise how dangerous this will be, Ye Zun tells her. It's not a question, not really. He knows, she knows, and yet she's still eager.

She makes an impatient little noise. Ye Zun thinks she might actually be amused. Well, she might be a friend of sorts, but Ye Zun has never claimed to entirely understand her.

"We should get on with it before she loses patience," Ye Zun says out loud.

The kids exchange some nervous looks between themselves, but they have nothing more to say.

They get Bumpy after all and her entire herd. They're surprisingly good at getting the attention of the Scorpios Rex.

And then… Well, apparently the two Scorpios Rex really can't stand the sight of each other.

This was not the plan, Ye Zun thinks. It's the only thought in his head as he lands on the back of the other Scorpios Rex. He'd meant to do this from afar, but something about the Scorpios Rex makes it resistant to Ye Zun's power.

Closer. He'd needed to get closer and now he's as close as he can get and— The other Scorpios Rex roars, when Blue gets her teeth in it. But Ye Zun doesn't have time to worry about anything but himself.

His plan had been to do this from afar and if that failed to get the hell out of there by portal if need be. His plan had definitely not been to portal himself straight on top of the Scorpios Rex, yet somehow that's what he's done.

The kids are still close by. He should have portaled them away along with himself.

Blue would have refused to go.

This was not the plan, Ye Zun thinks and sinks his hands into the Scorpios Rex's back, forcefully ripping at its energy. It roars.

Ye Zun screams.

The energy feels… wrong. But he doesn't stop. He keeps drinking in the energy until the thing under him is gone and then—

There's so much energy. It feels wrong. It tastes wrong. It refuses to settle inside Ye Zun. He needs to get rid of it. He needs to use it. He holds onto it as tightly as he can.

Not yet, not yet, he chants within his own head and doesn't quite know what he means anymore.

This time the kids actually leave. Ye Zun can't— He needs to use the energy and he can't— He's not sure he remembers the kids leaving, but they aren't there now. He doesn't know where Blue went.

Did he leave? Did he eat the other Scorpios Rex too?

It doesn't matter. He knows what he needs to do.

Somehow, he's at the place where he'd arrived. The scar in the air, in reality, seems to be pulling him towards it and Ye Zun reaches out. His hands are shaking. Someone screams as the energy pours out of him, into the portal-that-might-be.

Is he screaming?

He thinks he's screaming.

All of the nauseating energy spills into the rip in space, until every drop of it is gone and Ye Zun takes in a relieved breath and then another.

And then— Then Shen Wei finds him.

Shen Wei is standing there and Ye Zun can hardly believe his eyes. Maybe this is another after-effect of that foul energy. He isn't quite sure what has happened since he— Since— How long has it been? But the energy is gone and Ye Zun feels wrung out and he can't keep standing for much longer and that is Shen Wei standing right there. Isn't it?

Suddenly, Shen Wei is holding him and he feels so real. Ye Zun presses his face against Shen Wei's shoulder and he can feel Shen Wei, he can smell him, he can feel Shen Wei's dark energy leaking into the portal because he's used a lot of it to get here, even with how much Ye Zun poured into the rift.

"It's time to go home, didi," Shen Wei says and Ye Zun knows he needs some rest first. They both do, there's no way they have enough energy to leave right now.

Ye Zun means to say that, or maybe just agree, but somehow what comes out of his mouth is, "I need to check on the children."

He can't remember where the kids went. The ship. They should have gone to the ship but Ye Zun doesn't know.

Shen Wei is confused of course. And he's tired, not as tired as Ye Zun but still tired and they should rest first, but Ye Zun needs to check on the kids.

"Of course, didi. We'll make sure they're fine," Shen Wei says, even though he should rest. Even though Ye Zun maybe needs Shen Wei's support just to stay upright.

"I'll eat something on the way," Ye Zun says. Shen Wei doesn't look happy about that. So he quickly adds, "Not people, there aren't people here."

Shen Wei doesn't quite understand, so Ye Zun has to explain. He explains while they move. He's not up to portalling anywhere, and Shen Wei doesn't know where to go.

Ye Zun was right, Shen Wei is fascinated by the dinosaurs. He frowns when Ye Zun eats one, but he doesn't stop him. And it makes Ye Zun feel better. Sort of. Ye Zun still needs actual rest, but this will do for now.

Maybe another dinosaur to eat?

Of course, it turns out the children are in trouble. (But alive, so very, very alive and Ye Zun hadn't abandoned them.) But really, with his gege there, what chance do some soldiers (even very well-equipped ones) and one scientist have?

Shen Wei insists on talking to the scientist afterwards because apparently he's the one who made the dinosaurs and Shen Wei actually understands things like that. Ye Zun doesn't mind that much. He needs to rest anyway before they can go home.

The kids don't much like the scientist though. But Ye Zun thinks Shen Wei might have convinced him to take the kids away from here. The scientist is still looking at Shen Wei with wide eyes, fear written all over him and it's not like he would say no to Shen Wei.

So the kids will probably have to tolerate him for a while.

"I think we can manage it," the girl all in pink tells him, looking at the scientist with narrowed eyes.

Well, that's good then, Ye Zun thinks, because he's going home.