The Savior

People from the Mesa and the Plateau gazed down and smiled. Even though many of their own men perished, it was all worth it.

The aftermath of the war last night was catastrophic. Nearly a thousand people were killed, hundreds fled, and only a few thousand survived. Even innocent kids and women were seriously injured. Since the attack was uncalled for, the damage dealt was ugly. Several huts were burned to ashes; the ones who couldn't flee were held hostage, and their animals were slaughtered. The ones who managed to flee went to get allies from their traders. And what remained was the absolute dominance of the Band of The Plateaus. Vegas's crew. And they knew that the real war was just getting started. 

Yin Kang finally opened his eyes.

His eyes saw the world above him. There were leaves that covered the sun's shade and birds he had never seen before. Yin stretched his muscles and noticed that he wasn't naked anymore. 

He pushed the ground with his bare hands and sat up. 

"Who are you?" Yin asked in utter confusion at the strange-looking girl. 

Vegas sat crouched with her hand on her cheek, staring and adoring him like a Renaissance painting. 

She didn't respond. 

"Hey you! I'm talking to you. Where am I? What did you do to me?" He lost his temper. 

"Well, I surely didn't dress ya ass up." She answered sarcastically. 

"What! You...saw...me...nak...?" His tone got increasingly feeble. 

Vegas smacked herself in the forehead at the statement, her crouched posture even more bent, like an ape. She turned away to look at the tropical scenery behind her and ignored his presence as the day seemed brighter and the trees danced furiously to the warm wind. They were sitting in a forest located behind the great plateau, filled with the roars and cries of mammals and reptiles, yet it was pleasant. Beside them rested a calm and steamy pond with a glass-like, textured flower surrounding it. 

"Um, what's that weird-looking flower?" Yin asked curiously. 

"Polychromes. But all the others call em' The Memory Flower."

"The mem...Why?" 

Vegas stood up from her ape-sitting posture and walked over to the lake. 

Yin studied her carefully with every step. Who is she? Why am I with her? Where really am I? Xil? Are you here with me? A thousand questions flew past, but none were answered. The distinctive look of Vegas kept his eyes intrigued and locked to her. 

She plucked a fully grown flower from the bunch and marched her way towards Yin. He noticed she was barefoot, her steps so precise and tight like a cat. Her calves were visibly incredible. She would make a great fencer, he thought. Vegas halted, standing right in front of him. Then she gracefully placed the flower in the air, under his nose. Yin hesitated, but then he took a whiff. 

His inner self left immediately to the day he hugged Mei for the first and last time. He relived it like it was happening then and there, and a single tear rolled down his eye. 

"Woah! You cryin' over a damn memory? Seriously?"

He didn't listen. 

"Most O' fuckas here relive their dirtiest nights and then brain out. But what're you thinkin' bout huh?" 

He snuffled and gave no answers. 

Vegas threw the flower and walked past him to Juno, then pulled him from the penetrated ground. 

"Do you at least got a name?"

"Yin. Yin Kang."

"Cool." She reacted with a little excitement. 

"I'm Vegas." 

"That's your name...?" 

"What's wrong with a Vegas Mr. Kang?" She asked, annoyed. 

"Nothing." He replied firmly, not wanting her to misunderstand his reaction. 

Yin was still totally perplexed about the whole situation. But he remembers his conversation with Xil, The God, who was now within him. As one, and the promise he made to him. Is this where I'm supposed to begin? He thought. 

"Where in the hell are you even from? You a mortal?" Vegas broke his moment of silence.

"I'm a human. From Earth." He said it politely. 

"Holy Kontello! You from a named Realm…That's badass." Vegas responded with more excitement. 

"Named Realm?" 

"Yeah. Where you are from is a named Realm called The Mortal Realm, Earth. This too is a mortal realm, but right now its got no name, Mr. Kang." 

"Oh."

She stuffed Juno into his spear shaft and sat close to Yin. 

"Do I smell oil on you, Vegas?" Yin asked nervously.

"All ya bastards keep tellin' me I smell weird when I don't! I smell just fine! I shoulda let ya dead butt die on the battlefield." Vegas raged. 

"Battlefield? What are you saying?" 

"Yeah, you were freakin' knocked unconscious under a tree. If someone else hadda seen ya, you would've been killed. Lucky 'twas me."

"I'm thankfu…Thank you. Vegas." His words were genuine. 

Thank you. It was one of his least-used words. But Yin's intuition was ringing positive. He didn't doubt her about anything. He was clothed and saved by her. 

"I don't know how you're going to believe me. But after I died on Earth, I woke up in the middle of nothing. Just pure darkness. And… There was a voice talking to me. It was the voice of a God. A God named Xil, who promised to send me back to my world if I carried his will to victory. Now he's within me." Yin confessed.

Vegas had frozen half way into the message, her cat eyes wide open, staring into his soul in complete disbelief. 

"You…Died. But you're still alive. Are you a ghost?" Her poor brain couldn't comprehend his message. 

"No." 

He paused for awhile before saying, 

"I'm a God who's a human." 

Vegas scooched over close to him and placed her left ear hard against his chest to listen to his heartbeat.

"What…are you doing?" Yin asked her as he looked away from the view of her thick white hair eating his face. 

"You're a God?" 

"Yes. But also a human." He informed. 

"That is so badass, Mr.Kang! I can't believe I'm talkin' to a God-man. So you must have superpowers to turn the world upside down n' all right?" She questioned him with the fire of a little child. 

"I'm honestly clueless."

He finally got up and felt that he was taller. Maybe a lot taller. He knew he was just a little under six feet back on Earth, but he felt easily a lot taller, and so he walked over to the lake in front of him and looked down at himself in the still and serene water. He was dressed almost the same as Vegas. A thick black scarf and a dark trouser. His body had buffed a little bit, with his abs being impressively visible. There were sparkling strands of white hair along with his long, dark, chunky hair, and he had grown magically taller. He was a lot taller than he was. Nearly 6 feet and 5 inches. And most prominently, his eyes. One half of his iris was white in color, and the other half was black, and somehow he looked older. 

Yin touched his eyes as he remembered Mei. 

"How'd you die?" Vegas projected her question to the tall man. 

He exhaled. 

...

The day was darkening. It was time for the burning moon's arrival. The distant voices of the animals in the forest were gone, and the air was now cold. He had spent the whole day talking about his own death. But Vegas simply sat and listened, unmoved and fully invested. 

"And Mei's eyes were the last thing I saw." He ended. 

After a brief moment of silence,

"I think even I love her now, Mr.Kang." 

Yin laughed hysterically at the statement. 

And Vegas laughed too. 

He took a moment to think about it, but he couldn't remember the last time he laughed out loud. 

"I've never had this..." Vegas said after a second. 

"Had what?"

"A talk. With someone."

Yin smiled.

"Will you be my friend, Mr.Kang?" Vegas reached out and opened her hand in front of his at an awkward angle. She had never done this before. 

Yin hesitated, but then shook her hand firmly. 

"I will, if you stop calling me by that name." 

She nodded. 

"I have to get back to my mother and see how things are at my place. But I can't be takin' ya there, cause people will try to kill you. So just stay here, and I will come back with food." 

"I'll wait. But I'm not hungry."

Vegas got up and left for home. Yin was actually neither hungry nor thirsty. His body felt at ease and undisturbed. He sat, looking at the burning blue moon. It was magnificent, but there were only a handful of stars visible in the night sky. "Maybe Earth wasn't bad at all?" He thought. Minutes had rotted into hours, and hours later, Vegas was nowhere to be seen. But he believed her and waited.

"Ahhh!" 

A faint roar of a human was heard from really far away. Yin followed it carefully. As he kept walking towards it, the single roar was slowly turning into a thousand of them. He was getting even closer. The sound of fire, metals, and humans erupted into the world. 

Yin found himself outside the forest and in the village, in the middle of a war. 

Men dressed in black fought against the other people; hundreds had died, and the whole place was a bloodbath. But Yin's eyes searched for Vegas. Skipping from face to face. Only a few women were fighting, and among them was Vegas, taking out her enemies with ease but struggling to keep up with the number of them. Yin knew he had to step in to save his friend, but he was unarmored and unarmed. Still, Yin came out of the darkness and took another step into the battlefield, and his leg hit an object. 

Yin looks down and finds a sword.