ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water

by Rose Thorne

Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with The Untamed, and make no money writing fanfiction.

Being in the Cloud Recesses facing his fifteen-year-old self, surrounded by other fifteen year olds, many of them long dead in his time, is… sadly not the weirdest thing that's ever happened to him. Though it's definitely strange to be looking at a young himself, who seems absolutely amazed and would likely be asking all the questions in the world if Lan Zhan wasn't arguing with Lan QiRen currently. Young Lan WangJi looks vaguely constipated, but he knows that's largely confusion.

Fortunately, Lan Zhan has explained enough to prevent QiRen from having a qi deviation, largely that they did not intentionally time travel, that this was an accident. But the old man is currently arguing over the immorality of changing the timeline, of them telling any of them anything, that they should be locked into seclusion until they can be sent back to where—or rather, when—they belong. XiChen is looking on with a vaguely bemused look.

"If I may?" Wei WuXian breaks in when QiRen pauses to take a breath.

Lan Zhan gives him a long-suffering look of resignation, and Wei WuXian takes that as acceptance. He knows his husband—it's absolutely acceptance. He knows well enough that QiRen is unreasonable and needs a good shock to knock sense into him.

"Most of the people in this room are dead in the time we come from," he announces.

The murmurs that had been passing between students die immediately, and QiRen takes his seat abruptly, looking like he's been sucker-punched. Even young Lan WangJi looks distressed.

Wei WuXian starts pointing at people. "Jin ZiXuan. Dead."

The peacock looks absolutely shocked, as though the idea that he could die has never occurred to him, it's so beneath him.

There's more to say. That his dad is awful in ways barely comprehensible and will try to become the next Wen RuoHan. That he has many half-siblings, some the product of rape. That one of those half-siblings plotted his death. But all of that can wait for now.

"Jiang YanLi."

He has to pause to swallow hard here. He doesn't dare look at her or young Jiang Cheng. Lan Zhan puts a hand on his arm, and it steadies him, but his voice still cracks at the next word.

"Dead. Your son orphaned. My fault. You sacrificed yourself to save me. I didn't deserve it."

"A-Xian!"

So much is wrapped up in her voice, so many emotions, but he knows she's speaking in protest. He can't bear to look at her, can't handle her conviction that he would deserve her sacrifice, so he moves on.

"Jin ZiXun. Dead, but to be fair you grow up to like killing innocent women and children, so maybe deal with that."

"Wei Ying."

There's a warning note in Lan Zhan's voice, and he glances toward Jin ZiXun to see that the boy has started crying, and relents. He's not yet a monster, maybe.

"To be fair, there was a war that happened, but you let your anger and arrogance take over after and killed refugees. Let's try to be better, okay?"

The kid nods, and Wei WuXian moves on.

"Nie HuaiSang, your brother's dead. Artificially provoked qi deviation."

He glances at the boy and isn't surprised to see that though he's wide-eyed, there's some calculation going on in those eyes. Good.

"Su She. Dead. But like with Jin ZiXun, you're kind of awful when you die. Sorry."

Su She is scowling at him, and Wei WuXian fixes him with a hard look.

"You feel disrespected and looked down upon. I get that. But you'll die unmourned if you keep on your path of resentment."

The kid looks down, and he can see him biting his cheek, clearly at least thinking. That'll do for now.

"Jiang Cheng." He lets his voice gentle. "In the coming war, Lotus Pier burns. The only three who make it out are you, Wei Ying, and YanLi. Your parents, dead. All the disciples, dead. Your core gets melted by Wen ZhuLiu."

He's not surprised by the gutted look on Jiang Cheng's face.

"War?" XiChen asks. He looks vaguely sick.

"I'm getting to that. But Cloud Recesses burns at the start of it. Many of the disciples, massacred. Your father dies. Master QiRen, you're injured and I don't know if you ever truly recovered."

He glances at Lan Zhan for confirmation, and he nods. He doesn't dare look at the Lans.

"Wen Qing. Dead. Your brother also died, but I brought him back as a conscious fierce corpse and so he's still undead-living. You died later. Oh, and basically all the Wens are dead. Wen RuoHan starts a war, and it ends in the annihilation of QishanWen and basically a genocide of anyone with the name Wen. That's where his lust for yin iron leads."

Wei WuXian has noticed her looking at him in a calculated way, but this leaves her open-mouthed and clearly horrified. She values her brother above everything, and he knows learning Wen Ning died has shaken her.

"I did try to save your family, but only one child survived," he tells her softly.

She needs to know, and he hates to have to tell her that her sacrifices to keep them safe will come to naught.

"Ah, and by the way. That theory you have about core transplants is absolutely possible."

She looks away, as though she knows there's only one way he could know that.

"Core transplants?" Jiang Cheng interrupts. "How would you know about that?"

Wei WuXian smiles at him. From the tone of his little brother's voice, he suspects.

"Your core was melted. How do you think?"

"You! Wei WuXian!"

It's almost hilarious to see Jiang Cheng trying to decide whether to be mad at young Wei Ying or him—the one who would do it or the one who did. YanLi's hand on his arm stops him, seems to calm his natural impulse to punch one of them.

More uncomfortable, though, is dawning realization and horror he sees on several faces, including the young Lan WangJi, who looks at young Wei Ying in what is almost a possessive way.

Ah, how had he missed all the obvious clues for so many years?

Weirdly, QiRen is looking between himself and Wei Ying oddly… Is that respect?

To avoid dealing with that, because he absolutely cannot handle QiRen looking at him with anything but disdain, he looks at Wei Ying. His younger self has already clearly understood how much he's going to lose, what he's sacrificed, and goes rigid at his attention, fearing the worst is yet to come.

He's right.

"Wei Ying. Thrown into the Burial Mounds without a core. To survive, resorted to demonic cultivation. War hero, but feared, and so things went pretty badly after. Dead for sixteen years. Brought back by a soul sacrifice summoning spell."

There's open horror on Lan WangJi's face now, and Wei Ying looks shattered, slipping from his relatively proper sitting position to lean heavily against his desk. Jiang YanLi scrambles to him, and Jiang Cheng… He's seen him cry before, but never in public until now.

Wei WuXian leans against Lan Zhan, abruptly exhausted. He manages a smile when his husband puts a comforting arm around him, but it's mostly because young Lan WangJi's ears go bright red, his lips parting with realization. He hopes it softens the horror of what he's revealed of the future so far.

He wants so badly to tell them it will eventually be okay, that they'll be happily married and having a lot of really amazing sex, but now is absolutely not the time, and he suspects QiRen would actually have a qi deviation if he said that. Maybe later, to Wei Ying and Lan WangJi alone, with Lan Zhan.

"I've only scratched the surface. More of you are probably dead, but my memory's shit and I was dead for sixteen years, so…"

He finally turns back to QiRen.

"Still think it's unacceptable to change the timeline, or can we get on with it?"

The look of absolute contempt he gets from QiRen is so normal he almost wants to laugh. He's challenged the old man's rigidity in a way that can't be fought, and of course he's pissed about it.

Wei WuXian lets himself relax, just a little. The time travel was accidental, but maybe, just maybe… they can make things right.

Partially inspired by For_Bantan_Things' "Wangxian and Co. Do Time-Travel," which can be found on AO3. Also I wrote this instead of grading and on no sleep, and it's not beta'd. So hopefully it reads decently. This is a one-shot.

Also, the title is from a quote by the Dalai Lama.