(A.N.) For this story, you'll skin me alive, but it's not my fault how this tale ends. :( Better don't read it. I can put this tale only into two genres, but if I could describe it better, I'd write: crime, tragedy, fantasy/supernatural, dark, drama, adventure. Don't ask why. I also should give it the rating M, but maybe later... I publish it because it's like getting a fix to me. It's not a promise that I'll finish it like I finished Rag Doll. If I could finish this story, it would be much more complicated than the Army I. But I don't have enough time in my life now. I can't write all the time anymore, so forgive me if I abandon this story one day.

But well, YOLO! xD

I don't own any of KFP characters or locations. I own only the OCs.

Prologue

One year earlier...

The room was dark and cold. Master Zhú lay down in her bed, shivering with cold. She couldn't even cover her body with the blanket properly, for every move of her arms and legs was causing unbelievable pain in her muscles and dizziness. The panda was still in her wet flax linen clothes and the long green robe, for she had refused to use her dark uniform in the battle. She didn't know if her clothes were more wet because of the rain pouring outside or her own sweat. It had been only a few hours since the battle and she and some of the pandas had just returned to the academy. Zhú wanted to howl with fever and that horrible headache.. she couldn't keep warm. She must have caught something from the wolves... But was it possible to get such sick within a few hours? Soon, she felt tears running down her face and she coughed with effort. It was so painful to her lungs.

Someone knocked on the door and a young panda servant entered the room shyly. "Master Zhú?..."

Hearing Lihua's voice, the older panda opened her eyes slowly and saw warm light coming from the burning candle the girl was carrying. She put a big cup of hot, black tea with raspberry juice on the night table. It was heartbreaking to her to see the kung fu master's suffering. Lihua put her paw on Zhú's arm and asked quietly. "How are you f-"

"Get out of here!" The other female shouted, realising something suddenly. She got up in one second, and to the servant's shock, the older virgin grabbed her by the arm and dragged her towards the door.

"But Master-"

"It may be contagious!" Lihua heard before Zhú pushed her out of the room and slammed the door behind her.

Zhú almost fainted after throwing the girl out of there. She leaned against the door and caught her breath. Her gaze landed on the things lying on her table. Feeling that she would not live to see the next dawn, she made two steps towards the table, but before she realised what was about to happen.. she collapsed on the floor and started convulsing violently.

Wh-what's going on?..

Lying with her face on the floor, and shaking for a good moment, Zhú could barely understand what was happening. The panda's heart filled with fright when she realised that she was losing control over her own body. How would it end? Her teeth clenched and she started to cry again when after a while, the seizure... slowly ceased.

Still confused, she lifted her face off the floor, taking deeper breaths and though she was surprised that she was still alive, she managed to crawl up to the table and sat down heavily at the desk. Her hand shoved aside the metal war fan engraved with peacock feathers, still stained with Grand Master Shifu's blood, two pieces of paper full of Shan's plans and ideas written down on them a moment before Heron's death, and one of the peacock's long train feathers with a big, hypnotizing blue-green 'eye'. As the main teacher, worried about the students' and the academy's future, Zhú took a blank piece of paper out of the drawer, a small jar of ink and some old quill pen.

Master,

I'm sorry, I'm dying

The panda wrote in the dim light from the candle standing on the night table on the other side of the room. She pondered on something for a moment, staring at the characters she had written.

I lo

She stopped for a moment, feeling sharp pain in her heart. He doesn't need you. She heard her own voice in her head when she remembered that her master's son was now probably dying in the palace. She could imagine the hell he was now going through, when he was looking at his only son's death again after just a few days of their reunion. She knew that agony.

What she wanted to tell him was the least significant thing now.

The panda tore up her letter and dragged herself to the bed, leaving the shreds on the table top. She lay down and rolled herself onto her back. Covering her body with the blanket was something very difficult, but she managed to do that. She took a few breaths with effort, staring at the ceiling, and remembered the tea on the night table. She didn't have any strength left to drink it. And she should have taken the wet clothes off first. It was too late now.

She knew that her body was cooling down. That when her students found her, she would be already dead.

She closed her eyes, hoping that it would end soon and death would take the pain away.

A slight smile appeared on her lips when she thought that she had helped her master when he had needed her.

And so Zhú fell asleep... happy that she had managed to free him as he had done it for her years earlier.

She fell asleep... not remembering that in the same room, the artifacts taken from Shan's camp were resting on the table.

She survived... but nothing was like before.

One day, after the Dragon Warrior and his family's leaving, she heard some pandas' talk in one of the rooms in the academy. They had noticed that her behavior had changed since the night when she was so sick. They had noticed her strange smile... Her penetrating look...

She had never been a warm person, but since the battle... something had changed in her totally.

"Maybe she needs a doctor?" Lihua's voice sounded behind the wooden door.

"What doctor? She's not sick anymore." Rong, one of the teachers, a very big, strong panda wondered.

"Not a doctor for body, but a doctor who could heal her soul." The girl thought of her words for a moment. "Does anyone like that even exist?"

"Listen, I'm not a telltale... " Other teacher, brown-eyed Yao spoke quietly. "...but I think Master Heng should know.. I'm just worried about her. Maybe she's healthy, but still... don't you feel something strange in her presence?"

The door swooshed open and they immediately turned to the entrance and stiffened in fright as Master Zhú entered the room. They recognized that she wasn't in a good mood, considering her dark look. She was holding something in her hands. The folded war fan, the peacock's feather and Shan's plans - three trophies tied together with a raw string.

"No need to worry." She spoke calmly in the complete silence, for they were too scared to say anything. "I feel quite good."

They were confused. They had taken the weapons found in the camp, but wasn't she supposed to destroy the bird's things?

Suddenly, the artifacts fell out of her hands and hit the floor heavily with a loud thud.

"Could you please pick it up?" Zhú said to Rong, for he was standing closest to her.

Not thinking too much, the male obediently leaned down... He didn't know that she was forcing him to bow and touch the artifacts. When he was straightening up, he suddenly felt much weaker than before. He blinked and shook his head slightly, then he met her gaze, and when she was piercing his yellow-blue eyes with her scary look, he almost felt a leash tightening around his neck.

"I need more students." She stated, taking the things and smiled strangely.

(A.N.) Uh.. wanna more?...