touched_by_fire | Recent Entries

Danny sits in a lotus and reaches for his chi. It is late and no one is awake, but he knows to be quite or the guards will come and drug him again. The bed feels like it's swaying and he knows the walls would seem as if they we leaning in if he were to open his eyes. The drugs they force on him because he is uncooperative.

Gently, he pushes his awareness back to reaching his chi. He knows it is there, a part of him, but it is elusive, like grasping at smoke or lies.

This morning he’d woken--after being drugged by Joy--in a room, strapped to a bed. As he fought for clarity, to remember, a man was there. A doctor he’d thought, but no. The man tried to kill him, but then the guards...the orderlies came in and chased him away. Then forced more drugs…

No. Breath. In slowly...out...slowly. Feel the chi rise with the breath, coil, and grow…

That doctor--a real doctor this time, Doctor Edmond--didn’t believe who he was. Said Danny was confused, perhaps suffering a delusion. See here, Danny. Look at this passport I found with your things. Who’s John Anderson? That’s you isn’t it?

Was it?

No. I am Danny Rand. I am the Iron Fist.

Snow falls in the courtyard and Lei Kung’s voice echos. “A warrior must know themself. For if they don’t, if they are fighting who they are, they fight for their enemy.”

Danny pulls his thoughts towards the chi again, chasing water and smoke. Lei Kung was not here. The doctor was not here. All that was here was himself and his chi. All that mattered was him and his chi. He breaths again, pulling at the chi, but it shifts and it gone.

Like him dodging Dink, the violent patient who killed his parents with a hammer. Of course the orderlies swarmed Danny, even though he hadn’t struck back, had only side-stepped the clumsy attempt at a shove. But that didn’t matter. Danny was the one who was being uncooperative.

Deep breath. Anger would not raise the chi. Not now. Now all that mattered was raising his chi. Not Coleen refusing to help when he managed to call her. Not the Meachums betraying him. Not this damned city’s casual cruelty.

All that mattered was finding his chi...

Danny sneaks into the lower level of Rand, takes service elevators, and once again reaches the executive suites. This time he is more cautious and gets past the receptionist and is into Joy’s office with no one the wiser, although she is standing and reaching for her phone when she sees him.

“How did you get in here?”

“This was always my second home,” Danny replies holding his hands out in a placating gesture. He stays were he is, treating Joy as if she were a nervous animal. “I know all the ins and outs. Your brother tried to have me killed last night.”

“What? No,” Joy scoffs, keeping her hand near the phone.

“Can we finally talk?” Danny asks, encouraged by her not picking up the phone.

Joy nods, straightening to stand. “Okay, but I have mace in my purse and I can touch a button and have a guard here.”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Danny replies with a light laugh. They talk, actually talk, and Joy seems to be listening. They don’t get much past the events of the last few days, but Danny is encouraged. Joy even makes him tea!

Of course, it’s about halfway through the tea that Danny starts to feel lightheaded and the world tilts on its axis. Sluggishly, he looks at Joy with disbelief at her betrayal. “You what?” he manages. “Why would you?”

Right before he passes out, he sees Ward come up to stand beside Joy with a smirk on his face.

Danny spent the day in the public library, learning what he can of the accident that orphaned him and what has become of Rand Enterprises. Not much beyond what he already knew about the plane crash is in the public record, not even a cause for the accident, but Rand Enterprises has definitely expanded since his father’s day. They have stakes in many different industries, from polymers to pharmaceuticals. In fact, their holdings are so wide spread Danny quickly gets lost. One thing is perfectly clear however, Rand Enterprises is a billion dollar company.

Once the library closes, he heads south towards China town and Chikara dojo, Colleen’s business. He waits while she finishes a class and is impressed with the discipline she wields over her students.

After her class clears out, she gives him a skeptical look. “Hi. Here for a lesson?”

“What can two dollars get me?” Danny replies, holding up the bills she’d given him in the park yesterday morning.

She smiles but her body language is closed. “Cup of coffee down the street?”

“Never really liked coffee.”

“Or maybe a pair of flip-flops at one of the stalls.”

“I’m okay.”

They banter back and forth for a few minutes, Danny trying to find work but after the encounter with Joy, deciding not to push too far before he gives way and turns to leave.

“I apologize for any inconvenience,” he says from the door with a bow, before turning to leave.

“Hey,” Colleen calls out, stopping him. “Here.” She tosses him a pair of lightweight tabi shoes an old student had left.

“Thank you.”

Out on the sidewalk, Danny sits to put the shoes on. As he is standing, he is attacked and he responds immediately. The attack is brutal and no quarter is given, so Danny responds in kind, aiming blows to incapacite as quickly as possible with no worry for injuries. The two who attack are armed with guns and though he takes them out, five more are running towards him.

He runs to find a better place for the fight, looking for a place where their guns will not be an advantage. He can’t count on every gunman to be foolish enough to get close enough for him to reach them after all.

Unnoticed by Danny or his attackers, Colleen watches from her dojo’s window above. When Danny runs away, she climbs out after with a katana

Turning into an alley, he is faced with a fifteen foot fence. As he bounces form corner to wall to scale it, he can hear the curses of his pursuers as they split up to try and corner him. Landing with a light laugh, he is nearly caught off guard by a shout of another gunman. This one is smart and keeps his distance, but is surprised into freezing when Danny charges him. A quick disarm and strike, and the man is down and unconscious. Danny pauses only long enough to release the gun's clip, tossing it into the trash and then dropping the gun into a puddle.

Hearing the sounds of a parade, Danny runs that way. Once there, he blends in with the festival. Keeping an eye out, he quickly notes the positions of his attackers and moves to turn the hunt to his favor, taking each down in turn until he disarms the last. Holding him in a joint lock, he recognizes the man as Shannon, one of the security guards who'd kicked him out of Rand Enterprises.

"Who sent you?!?" Danny demands.

The guard glares at him, lips pressed tight. Danny twists the arm painfully, pointing out how easily he could break or push it out of joint.

"Ward. Ward Meachum," Shannon gasps. Satisfied, Danny strikes and knocks the man unconscious before running off.

Back at the park and still riled up from the fight, Danny taps on Big Al’s tent and calls out for him. He wants to tell Al about the attackers, how they were Rand security, the very ones he’d fought through the other day to get to the executive suites, and get Al’s insight. Not getting an answer, he looks around finds Al leaning against the tree.

Coming over, a growing concern grips Danny as he realizes Al isn’t focusing on him or moving. Is he even breathing? Danny touches his chest careful, in case the big man is sleeping, but nothing. He touches his face next and then notices the needle sticking out of his arm. Rocking back on his heels, Danny nearly cries in grief. Carefully pulling the needle out, Danny notices a tattoo of a hawk in flight, and is reminded of the hawk that showed him the path out of K’un Lun was open.

Danny sets Al’s hands in his lap and recites a Buddhist prayer for the dead.

Danny wakes the next day feeling a little better than he had last night. The frustration he felt from being met with such hostility and suspicion had faded enough that his usual cheer resurfaced. He decides to go and met Joy at her home, what was once his home. Maybe talking with her outside of the office and away from Ward would be more productive. She would see he wasn’t crazy or a danger. She would stop denying who he was. They’d been close once after all; allies to Ward’s darker nature in their childhood.

Unfortunately, Joy did not meet Danny’s expectations and was immediately hostile all over again. Danny tried over and over to convince her he meant no harm but she just wouldn’t believe him. Why did no one believe him? Then he’d let slip he’d been inside her home and knew he’d made a serious error in judgement, both in the slip and in gaining entry.

“Did you break in?” She says, eyes nearly blazing as she brandished her phone like it was a weapon. Deep in her eyes Danny thought he might see fear, but that made no sense. He wasn’t a danger to her. “My dog was closed in my study last night when I got home. You did that? Now that is so not okay, my friend.”

Backing away, Danny tries to hold up his hands in a placating manner, feeling lost and helpless as to what to do, completely missing that he’s stepped out into the street and into the path of a speeding taxi. His body reacts for him, however, and he flips over the rushing vehicle as if it were nothing. Landing easily, he looks back to Joy with regret and called out weakly, “Sorry….I’m sorry,” before running away.

Later, in City Hall park, he tries to rekindle the optimism he had upon waking and to center himself with some Tai Chi. The warmth of the sun and the slight breeze bring a measure of calm to his heart and the murmur of the city, as the people walk about and the cars hum about on their errands, envelops him like a cocoon of memory. Serenity is there, he can see it, but it stays just out of reach. He stops chasing it when he hears someone put some bills into his leftover coffee cup by his feet.

Chuckling as he bends over to pull the bills out, he follows the woman who left them. He’s all but spent the last of his money, but he’s confident he’ll soon have matters taken care of with the Meachums. Even if they are proving resistant, the truth will come out.

“Thanks,” he says holding out the money to the woman who is now posting flyers on the park’s bulletin boards. She is beautiful, of Asian decent (Chinese, Danny guesses, but maybe Japanese as well) and focused on her errand. “I wasn’t asking for money.”

She looks at him with a smile, actually meeting his eyes, which he’s noticed is something most people don’t do with those who don’t seem as if they have a home. “Oh,” she replies with a chuckle, “Uh, whatever.” She waves off his attempts at returning the money and goes back to stapling her flyers.

Danny reads one of the flyers, an ad for martial arts classes at the Chakara Dojo, and pulls it off. “Wow, is this you?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool. I’m Danny.”

“Colleen.”

That night, Danny tries once more to reach out to the Meachums with truth and friendship, but this time with Ward. He decides to change his tactics and instead of coming to their office, waits at the building’s valet service for when Ward leaves for the night. He ends up waiting quite a while, which makes him wonder what kind of life Ward has outside of the office, likely little if he makes a habit of working so late. As the valet leaves the car, Danny runs up in a crouch and takes the driver’s seat.

Ward notices and calls out, “Hey!”, as he runs to open the passenger door and leaps in. “What the hell are you doing?!?”

Danny puts the car into gear and starts off, glad of the time he took to learn how to drive while traveling through Morrocco. “I wanted to talk. I didn’t know any other way to get to you.”

“No way,” Ward replies, shaking his head and then reaching for the safety bar as Danny speeds towards the ramp up into the parking structure. “Stop. STOP!”

Ward’s fear is a thrill to Danny and he can’t resist poking at it. “Sorry. I, uh, haven’t driven since my dad put me on his lap and let me drive around our place at the Hamptons.”

That proves too much for Ward and he darts forward, opening the glovebox and pulling out a gun, which he points at Danny’s temple. “I said stop the car.”

Anger flares in Danny, but he pulls it back. “Ward, I just need to talk.”

Ward pushes the gun against Danny’s temple. “Pull over.”

Danny sighs. Why do people with guns insist on doing this? “Put the gun away.”

“Now.”

“Look, I just want to talk, okay?”

“You can talk to the police. That’s who you can talk to.”

The anger rises again and Danny can’t pull it back this time. “I have been met with nothing but anger and hostility since I’ve been home. And honestly, it’s kind of aggravating.” He turns to look at Ward, ignoring the gun but stopping the car. “So I’m going to ask you one last time. Please put the gun away.”

Ward pulls it back long enough to cock it before pointing it at Danny. Danny shakes his head, and with a speed Ward is barely aware of, takes the gun (without breaking Ward’s fingers--a kindness on Danny’s part), and turns it on Ward, pressing it to Ward’s temple. “How does it feel? Huh?” A chuckle for the kid Danny used to be rises. “Not so good.” Danny’s breath is ragged in his anger that is building, finally released. “Not so good.”

Then, he barks, “BANG!” (when earns a small whimper from Ward), before he pulls the gun up, releases the firing arm, thumbing the safety to make sure it was on, and dropping the gun into the back seat.

“You will never get a penny from us,” Ward threatens, regaining his composure.

Incredulous, Danny scoffs. “Who said anything about money?”

“Than what do you want?”

“I want to know what happened. To me, to my parents, to the company that has my name on it!”

“That’s all you want? Really? Wendell Rand, his wife Heather, and their son, Danny, died in a plane crash in the Himalayas. The plane was never found. Their bodies were never found.”

“Keep going.”

“That’s all I know.”

“Oh, come on.”

“I was fifteen when they died. Why would I know anything more? And why do you think that there’s more to know? And why do you care? Because you are not Danny Rand.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Show me a DNA test that proves you’re a Rand.”

“I have no living relatives.”

“A fingerprint test.”

“I was ten when we crashed. I never had fingerprints taken.”

“They you’ve got nothing,” Ward nearly hisses.

“Oh man,” Danny says shaking his head again before looking Ward in the eyes. “You were a dick as a kid, and you’re still a dick.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“No?” Danny replies, the righteous anger of a bullied child taking him. “You used to lock me in the freezer at the Rand cafeteria. At one of the company picnics, you put a dead frog in my sandwich. You would kick me in the balls every chance you had. This sound familiar? Hmm?”

Ward shifts in his seat and stares Danny cold in the eyes. “None of that is true. I can only wonder what it’s like inside that crazy little head of yours.”

Stunned at the blatant lie, Danny chews on his cheek for a moment before shaking his head and chuckling. “You wanna know what it’s like? Hmmm? It feels like this.” Danny floors the gas pedal and just barely turns in time to steer the car away from the curve of the ramp they’ve been sitting in. “When you’re a ten-year-old boy and you watch your mother die and you know you and your father are next? It feels like this!”

The anger burns in Danny but the memories tear through it and he’s back in the shaking plane as it’s torn apart. His mother is there again, unbuckling from her seat to run to him, but she never makes it. Instead, the roof is torn off the plane and she is sucked out into the clouds. His father calls out in horror and then looks to Danny. “I love you, Danny,” he says before all goes white.

Ward’s shouts of “STOP THE CAR!!!!” pull Danny from his flashback and he has just enough time to brake and turn the car to keep them both from flying off the top of the parking structure.

Danny and Ward both stumble out of the car and Danny, still shaken by the flashback, says, “I’m...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” before turning to run away again.

“This isn’t over!” Ward shouts.

Back at the park, Danny mediates to find his center again when Big Al shows up and offers him a foil wrapped sandwich, explaining it came from a deli on Bleecker. As Danny takes a bite of the sandwich, chicken parmesan, Al continues to talk about his belief that everything thing went wrong when people gave up being hunter gatherers, and that he’s going to stay true to his purpose, that of being a hunter gatherer.

“You’re lucky then,” Danny says with a smile. “The Buddha said, ‘Your purpose in life is to find your purpose’.”

Al nods and scratches his nose. “Sure, that makes sense. What’s your purpose? Do you know it?”

With a smile, Danny nods. “To protect K’un Lun from all oppression. Honor the sacrifice of Shou-Lao the Undying.”

Al chuckles. “Well, alright then. Just remember to have fun along the way.”

Danny pauses at the docks to close his eyes and breath the Manhattan air and listen to the city; his city. He’s finally home after fifteen years. His reverie is cut short when someone bumps him and he instinctively grabs his wallet, knocking the man’s hand aside at the same time. The man freezes at being caught and then bolts.

Danny doesn’t follow. He has other things to do.

Three blocks later, a homeless man is begging for change and being ignored by everyone else. Danny, not being one to ignore suffering, stops and digs out a twenty to give the man, but when he sees how badly scraped up the man’s feet are, he adds his shoes as well.

A few people passing by shake their head or scowl at him, but Danny doesn’t care. Suffering should be alleviated whenever possible.

On the other side of Greenwich Village, Danny stops at a bodega for a snack. The shopkeeper scowls at his lack of shoes, but Danny shows him a ten dollar bill and mimes asking permission to enter; which the shopkeeper gives, begrudgingly. While he’s trying to decide between Ho-Hos or Twinkies a pair of robbers come in and begin shouting. It’s just Danny and the shopkeeper, so Danny steps over to the magazine rack, puts in his earbuds, and begins thumbing through a martial arts magazine.

The robber with the shotgun notices him first and gestures for the one with the baseball bat to take care of him.

Danny is careful not to react as the man comes over yelling at him to get on the floor and when he goes to poke him with the bat, Danny grabs it and jerks it hard into the man’s face, catching him in the cheek, nearly fracturing it.

The man goes down with a cry, and Danny immediately goes back to playing dumb.

Side-stepping to keep the shopkeeper in sight, the second robber comes over and begins yelling at Danny. Danny just nods his head along to non-existent music, needing to get the man closer before he can act. The man does so and just when he looks back to the shopkeeper, Danny grabs the end of the shotgun, pushing it back and twisting it sideways. With a cry the man’s trigger finger breaks, trapped in the guard, and he lets go.

With a smile, Danny hands the shopkeeper the baseball bat and shotgun, as well as five dollars for the Ho-Hos and Twinkies. Why pick one when you can have both?

He continues walking and eating, careful to throw the wrappers away in a trash can, and finally makes it to the Rand building. Soon he will have his answers…

Thirty minutes later, Danny is ejected from the building and still struggling with the after effects of a panic attack. How could things have gone so wrong? OK, maybe when the guards tried to kick him out the first few times, that should’ve been a hint of how things were going to be, but he was so sure he just needed to talk his way through. Why didn’t Ward and Joy know him? They were family, practically siblings, even if they came from different parents. And Harold, their father and his father’s business partner, dead?

Danny stood and focused on his breathing, but was interrupted by a guard telling him to get out of there. Nodding and making a placating gesture, Danny left.

Not quite paying attention to where he went, Danny was surprised to find himself on the block of his old family home, which lifted his mood. Smiling he walked faster until he was at his front door. Okay, it wasn’t really his front door anymore, but still if he could just see the inside for a moment.

He rang the bell and waiting, fighting to keep his enthusiasm from making him dance. He rang again and when still no one answered, he remembered the spare key above the door. Would it still be there? Leaping up, and grasping the door mantle, he reached blindly with fingers and found it...but of course the locks had been changed. Sighing, he leaped up, returning the key to its hiding place.

Danny turned to leave, but a few steps later noticed an open window on the second floor. Looking around casually, he ran a step or two, leap onto the wrought iron fence, onto the wall, scurried up to the balcony, and then he was in.

Stunned with old and new scents, the memories hit him hard. Walking in carefully, as if treding too heavily would break a spell or something, he spots photos of Joy and Ward, then a diploma of Joy’s. Smiling at her achievement, he turns to continue and pauses when he hears the growl.

Turning slowly, he sees a very large dog who doesn’t seem quite sure what to do. Moving slowly, and being sure to not seem threatening or overly friendly, Danny sits with his shins tucked beneath him and waits for the dog to calm, which is does. Then, standing and approaching carefully, Danny reaches out and softly closes the door to the room the dog was in.

Lost in memories and photos, Danny comes back to the present when he hears the front door latch. On soft feet, he leans carefully over the railing to look downstairs and see Joy enter. Knowing better than to startle her here, not after the meeting earlier, Danny makes his exit the way he came in and heads for the park he left his backpack in.

Settling in against the trunk of a tree, Danny cues up some music and opens his Tao Te Ching, hoping for some wisdom to counter the frustrations and disappointments of the day when a hand touches his shoulder. Looking up he sees a homeless man who is smiling faintly.

“Hey,” Danny says with a wan smile before turning back to his book.

“Hey. Uh uh, I didn’t mean to spook you,” the man says.

“I don’t really spook.” Danny smiles again and turns back to his book.

“I’m big Al.”

Danny stops his music and pulls his earbuds out. “Danny.”

“Don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“I’ve, uh, been away a while.”

“Traveler, huh? Yeah.”

“Kinda…”

“Nice iPod. I got an iPhone,” Al says taking a seat beside Danny.

“Nice,” Danny says and as they continue to talk, Danny can’t help the feeling that Al is NYC giving him a welcome back; even if none of the people he’d wanted to welcome him back did.

All comments are screened to protect the innocent.

tl;dr: Iron Fist has many problems and uses problematic tropes to tell its story. Among them are; All Asians are one, Mighty Whitey/White Savior, and a toxic portrayal of masculinity. Why would I chose to work with such a canon, even if I intend to fix the problems? Well, I’m a fan of the Iron Fist mythos and I love the sweet innocence Danny Rand has at his core.

( Read more... )

Danny knew he was dreaming by now, but that didn't really help matters. He sat in a very small room that was covered in red silk and swayed. Across a small tea table from him sat an old woman who had an all too knowing smile on her lips.

"You have performed admirably. Much better than we ever could have hoped," she said before taking a sip of tea from a mug printed with I ♥ NY. From the scent filling the small space, it was come very fine green tea, likely jasmine. "I would say you should be proud, but I know you."

"Who are you?" Danny asked, thinking the swaying of the room was getting annoying and disorienting.

"That is not important."

"Then what do you mean I performed admirably? I don't understand."

"I know," she said with a laugh. "And that is what makes it all so glorious. All those years you fought for K'un Lun, or at least thought you did."

A scent entered the room now, of smoke, copper, and burnt meat. Danny began to fear. "What is this?!?" he called out and pushed against the wall only to discover it was a curtain and he'd been riding in a large palanquin. Outside he saw the city of K'un Lun burning, the monks he grew up with slaughtered.

"No...." was all Danny could whisper. A cold, skeletal hand touched his cheek and he over towards the old woman.

"Oh yes. And we have so much more to accomplish, my weapon."

Danny had trouble sleeping on the bed, even with the curtains left open. He tossed and turned for what felt like forever until he gave up, pulling a pillow and blanket to the floor to sleep on something more akin to his time in K'un Lun. It felt like barely a moment since he'd closed his eyes, at rest finally, before a gunshot startled him awake. He flung the blanket away and flipped into a fighting stance.

"You've got some good reflexes at least," the strange man with the gun in his room said. The man wore a green turtleneck sweater and slacks, and an amber mask to cover his face. All, Danny noted, the exact colors of the robes of the Order of the Crane Mother.

"What the HELL?!?" Danny yelled, igniting the Fist and taking a more aggressive stance.

"Oh, calm down. You'd be dead if I wanted to hurt you."

"Who. Are. You?"

"Orson Randall. Put on a shirt or something. We're going on a trip."

"Why would I go with you?"

"Cause I have answers, and you have questions. About the Fist and much more." As if to make his point, Orson's fist began to glow and Danny could once again feel the chi of Shou-Lao. Reluctantly, Danny grabbed a nearby hoodie and pulled it over his head, to find himself at the gate to K'un Lun.

Orson chuckled at Danny's surprise and wonder. "You'd think you've gotten over that with Wu's visit."

"What is this all about?"

"As Lei Kung was so fond of saying, 'open your eyes and see'."

Danny did so and saw several monks guarding the entrance to the heavenly city. The flush of guilt he felt at seeing someone else doing his duty made his Fist flicker and fade. "I see two people doing what I should be."

Orson scoffs and smacks Danny on his back. "And what use would an immortal weapon be stuck at a gate?"

"So I was right to leave?"

"Who knows? Not me. I don't really care."

"Then why..." Danny began but he blinked and they were somewhere else, Libya he thought. The town seemed familiar, despite the recent damage from another attack.

"Because the Fist is pointless. In the grand scheme, it's useless."

"I can't believe that."

"Then you are blind," Orson says before scowling, grabbing Danny's collar and dragging him towards a home. "You remember this place? You fought for the family here. Drove off a group of gunmen who wanted to take the young daughter away."

Danny tried to pull back and break free. With horror mounting with each foot step, he knew he didn't want to see what was in the home Orson was dragging him to, but try as he might, Orson was too strong. Orson spun him around and made him look, grasping his chin to direct his gaze. "Here's how useful the Fist is!" The home had been at ground zero for a missile or some explosive and there was nothing left of the family but stains.

"The Fist is nothing. Just a weapon. Only as good as the one who wields it and just as futile."

Danny broke free then, spinning until he got his footing. Orson was gone, nothing but a voice in the smoke. "The Fist is nothing."

"You're wrong!" he yelled back.

Danny sprung awake then and hit his head on the nightstand. Falling back with a groan. What the hell was happening?

After the fight with the fiery demon thing (was it really a Balrog?) and his failure with the Fist (a first since he got it), Danny decided to stay within Milliways until he could figure out what happened. The room he was given is nice, though more luxury than he is currently used to. The bed even had curtains!

(In some ways it reminded him of one time in Paris with his family. They'd closed the curtains and told stories in the gloom, staying up so late his father had almost missed his meeting the next day.)

His memories were interrupted by the sound of silk brushing brocade and he started awake, leaping from the bed in his pajama bottoms to find an imperious Chinese woman staring at him. She wore the robes of the Order of the Crane Mother, the same Order that taught him.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"I am Wu Ao-shi," she answered, her face giving nothing away. Casually, she raised her right hand and ignited it with the chi of Shou-Lao, the same chi which thundered in Danny's veins. This was impossible, but he could feel it was so. "And a better question is what you want."

Startled, Danny felt his own chi react to Wu Ao-shi's and his Fist ignite, blinding him and making his room disappear in a flash.

When next he could see again, he immediately saw he stood in K'un Lun. Panicked he looked about and found Wu standing beside him. "Do not fear, Daniel Rand. None here will see us."

"I don't understand?"

"That much is clear. Look about, learn."

Danny did so and saw a young boy standing in an abysmal horse stance and punching at a wall over and over. The boys knuckles were bloody from where he'd hit the wall by mistake and calluses suggested this was a common practice. Shocked, Danny realized the boy was himself. Looking about more closely, Danny realized this was the past and the courtyard of Lei Kung, his adopted guardian. He turned to face Wu again, to ask how this could be but his words were interrupted by another's.

"They boy attacks a wall. This is what you would show me?" The voice in the shadows of the courtyard said.

"Is that all you see?" Another voice replied and Danny recognized Lei Kung.

"Psst. Many servants have delusions of grandeur."

"Again, this is all you see? Look at the stains on the wall. See how they climb higher as the boy grows? Delusions or daydreams of being a warrior do not last so long."

"No. But he is not one of us. It was good of you to allow him to join your home, but he is no warrior. Only those of K'un Lun can train to become a living weapon, let alone a chance to become an immortal one."

"It is I who decides, Tuan. Not you." At this Lei Kung turned and left, leaving Tuan to glare secretly at Danny for a few more moments before he to left.

Danny looked to Wu Ao-shi again and tried to form words to questions he didn't even know. She shook her head and raised her fist again, blinding him. Once his sight returned, he saw they were in one of the sparse meditation chambers of the Order. This time Danny turned to look about before being told and saw himself again, a boy dressed in the green and amber robes of the initiate. His younger self was kneeing as several older monks beat his back with bamboo swords.

The standard price of losing a fight.

"The boy cries like a child," came Tuan's disgusted voice.

"Yes, but he does not cry out." Lei Kung noted. "Nor beg an early end."

"A donkey does much the same. This is madness. Our ancient enemy arranged for the boy to find us, we should not be training him! Why give an enemy your best weapon?"

"Why indeed?" Was all the reply Lei Kung offered.

Danny turned toward Wu Ao-shi again, confused as to the purpose of what she showed him but she was gone. Danny spun about but everyone was gone as well. He stood alone in a dark cave. Well, not completely alone as he saw when the great dragon, the immortal Shou-Lao the Undying opened his glowing eyes...

The guardian stood and watched the gate. Today all was quiet, as it had been the week before, and likely the week after; although there were flurries of snow blown against the gray nothingness beyond the gate.

The guardian sat in meditation; his awareness at the gate, as was proper. He could smell the cooking fires of the Heavenly city behind him and the snow of the mountains before him. The way from K'un Lun, as ever, shrouded in shadows and clouds.

The guardian waited and watched at the gate, but nothing was there to guard against. He looked up into the sky and saw a hawk flying. Following its path into the valley below, the guardian realized the way was open to the world.

***

Danny turned back at the gate to gaze once more at the Heavenly city before he turned to find the home he'd been taken away from fifteen years before.

Duty had less of a pull than home.

title: Nightmare takes a rider
rating: PG
characters: Danny Rand (Netflix's Iron Fist)
summary: Danny wakes from memories and trains to escape the past
A/N: Fic prompt. Warnings for childhood trauma, death of a parent

He's grasping desperately at his seat as the hungry wind pulls at him, trying its best to lift him. His mother is there, trying her best to buckle him in and the plane is shuddering as if it means to come apart. Across the cabin from him, his father is screaming and begging his mother to get back to her seat before it's too late.

The roof of the plane is torn off. Sound and motion stops. The wind still pulls at everything. His mother touches his cheek, mouths the words, "I love you," then is gone. Pulled up through the hole in the roof.

He can't even scream.

He wakes with a start, his throat clenched tight in terror, holding in the scream that is clawing in his chest. He's sitting up in bed, gasping to breath, the edges of his vision growing dark before they lighten again. It is still the middle of the night, hours before the cook's call to service and his day to begin.

He gets up anyway and heads to the practice yard. Standing before the brownish smear on the wall, he sets himself into a crouching stance and sets into his punches.

Hours later, his master's son, Davos, comes out. Shaking his head, he says, as he does each morning, "You will never be chosen. You're an outsider, a servant."

As always, Danny ignores him and continues until the cook calls him in.

He can't stop the nightmares, but he can make his parents death mean something if he proves he's worthy to be an initiate of the Thunderer, to maybe become the Iron Fist.