Hello, readers and/or friends! I hope you are all doing well! As the summary on the main page says, this is the sequel to my previous Kung Fu Panda story, Vexing Crimson. If you haven't read it yet, DO IT. I can almost guarantee you that NOTHING here will make sense if you do not. Now, this story came to me while I was looking at the stories of Cryssy-miu and gothicorca1895, whom many characters in here belong to. (I AM USING THESE CHARACTERS WITH PERMISSION, SO, PLEASE, DON'T SUE ME! Also, my own personal OC, the devilish Maddohatta, returns here...though probably not in the way you are expecting.) I noticed that the story of Lord Shen these fanfics pattern follows a journey: he redeems himself (Cryssy-miu's Redeeming Light and gothicorca1895's If No One Will Listen), saves the life of his best friend, whom he thought he killed (Long Shot), discovers that someone else he thought he killed is still alive, finds her, and reconciles (Keeping a Secret), and then finds love, something he thought he could never feel/have again (The Great Escape). In Vexing Crimson, I tried to give Shen an enemy who would be a mirror of himself, so to continue on the "journey" theme the stories seem to have. To make this sequel, I needed to think about this question: what is left in this "journey" that Shen has to make? Well, the answer is here. But, before we can go into that, and answer that question, a few boring things must be taken care of...
Rating: T (just to be safe...I don't really know if I'll get up to that level, but still...)
Disclaimer: I own none of Cryssy-miu's, nor gothicorca1895's, OCs, nor any other character here. If they don't belong to those two fantastic authors, than they belong to the makers of the Kung Fu Panda universe, which I also hold no ownership over. Only Maddohatta, and a few other characters that have not yet appeared, are mine.
Summary: One of the greatest rules in many beliefs is this: hold no hate for your enemy, but try to show them forgiveness, and help them see the light. Shen is living proof this rule can work. But, now, can he follow this rule himself? And, if he does, will it really do any good?
Notes: This whole chapter is just one big allusion to the Alice stories by Lewis Carroll. As those of you who read the first story are aware, I am quite obsessed with these tales, so, while no other references are planned, do not be surprised if any show up.
And, now, ladies and gentlemen...boys and girls...undecided...I give you...
Chapter 1: A Curious Dream
Shen opened his eyes slowly.
He could smell salt...sand...
Was he by the ocean?
He sat up and looked around.
Yes...this was a beach.
Shen stood up. He looked down and stared in surprise.
He was wearing fine, silver silk robes...not unlike the ones he wore when...
He shivered, flames leaping before his mind's eye.
He looked up again.
The beach stretched on for miles, with no apparent end in sight. Shen looked up, and noted that the moon was visible, and that the Sun seemed to be setting, so that both were up at the same time. Shen narrowed his eyes, turning his head fast as a noise came to his ears, somewhere in the distance, behind the uneven dunes of the uneven beach shore.
He realized it was someone singing. He flinched slightly at the words he heard.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little bird...freaky, foolish, and disturbed. Clip your wings, so you can't fly...kill you, cook you, serve on rye. Twinkle, twinkle, little bird...freaky, foolish, and disturbed..."
Shen took a step, and felt his train bristle with knives.
He stopped moving, confused and surprised.
He hadn't carried so many knives since...
A cackling laugh and a vast, toothy grin now flashed before him.
He shivered again, harder now, and continued to move.
As he climbed the dune, and looked down, and his eyes widened even farther still.
Then, slowly, they narrowed again.
There was a large table, set out under a cherry tree – what such a tree was doing on a beach with sand dunes was beyond Sheng Li – and at it were seated three figures.
One was Kurisu, tied up and with a pair of rabbit ears strapped to her head, struggling fiercely, mouth gagged with a roll of cotton. Beside her sat another figure, apparently sleeping, cloaked in black.
And, at the far end of the table, sat a tall, thin figure with dark fur, dressed in a red and gold coat and a black top hat with a red hatband, and with long, feline ears, his long legs folded and slung over the tabletop.
This figure's own scarlet eyes narrowed, even as his fang-filled smile widened.
"No room," hissed Maddohatta softly, lifting a teacup up, and sipping the herbal blend within.
Shen moved down the dune.
"There's plenty of room," he said, his own voice now an avian hiss.
The demented panther chuckled darkly.
"Very well, if you say so...sit down, why don't you?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kurisu shake her head urgently.
Shen ignored her; if he was to save his Itty Bitty Kitty, he would probably need to play whatever game the madman had concocted. He cautiously approached and sat down.
"Won't you have a cup of tea?" purred the cat in the hat, tilting his own cup towards a pot in the center of the table.
Shen glanced at the Chinese teapot, and shook his head silently.
Maddohatta shrugged, and took another drink.
"I half-thought you would be gone for good after that...little fall of yours."
The panther laughed.
"You can't get rid of me that easily, Sheng Li. Not anymore than you can rid yourself of the darkness that surrounds the silvery white of your robes and feathers."
"I rid myself of that long ago," Shen said.
The cat snorted.
"You cannot," he said flatly, almost superiorly. "That darkness emanates from your memories...memories of a past long dead. Long rotten. But, like many dead things, not totally forgotten."
Shen glared, but said nothing.
"Face it, Lord Shen," Maddohatta purred smoothly, smirking smugly. "Your heart is as black as mine. You turn your back, pretty little tail feathers and all, on today, so that you can live in yesterday. And the reason you do this? Because, my dear peacock prince, the light of the present is too much for your sore, scarlet eyes..."
"Shut your mouth!" snapped Shen, rising fast. "I've changed! Your proof that I've changed!"
"It's a mote point, my feathered fink," snarled the so-called Hatter, rising in his own seat menacingly. "Your past follows you wherever you go! And, if you don't believe me..."
Here Maddohatta pointed towards Kurisu's chair.
"Why don't you...look?"
Shen turned, slightly confused.
He gaped, horrified.
Kurisu lay slumped in her chair...a feather-shaped blade in her chest.
Shen stared. He felt his right eye twitch and brim with tears...
"You see?" Maddohatta growled. "That's one of your throwing daggers, isn't it?"
Shen stared, dumbstruck and stunned.
"But...I wouldn't...couldn't...I-I didn't even touch her..."
"Ah, but you did!"
Shen could have swore he felt something snap in his brain. He leapt at the panther, his halberd appearing, as if out of nowhere, in one wing. His metal-plated talons slamming into the maniac's chest, ripping at him. Maddohatta put up no fight as fur, blood, skin, and cloth flew from his own body...
"YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" Shen found himself screaming. "YOU DON'T KNOW ME! YOU. DON'T. KNOW...!"
He gasped and gagged as he felt something slam into him.
He looked up at the cloaked figure.
A set of white feathers, holding a familiar knife to his throat...
He stared up, his horror rising tenfold, as the black-cloaked thing removed its hood...revealing maddened red eyes, sickly white feathers, and a black, sharp beak curved into a twisted smile.
"But I DO," whispered the cloaked peacock.
Shen cried out as he felt the blade at his throat draw a bit of blood...
And then he woke up.
Shen sat upright, gasping for breath.
"Um...Shen?"
He turned...a little too fast, and still with a panicked expression, it seemed, for Lanying, his bride, flinched slightly when he faced her.
"Are you all right?"
Shen sighed, running his feathers over his face.
"Yes, my dear...just a nightmare..."
"Is it the one with...him in it again?" asked the Java green peahen warily.
Shen nodded almost sadly.
"For five straight nights I've had it...it's going to drive me crazy again, I swear..."
He chuckled wryly.
"Perhaps the Soothsayer will enlighten me."
There was a pause.
"There," Shen said suddenly. "You see?"
Lanying blinked.
"Uh...well, actually...I really don't know what I'm supposed to be seeing."
Shen chuckled, this time more sincerely.
"I'm starting to just call Nana 'Soothsayer' again...next thing you know I'll be trying to blow up a rhinoceros."
Lanying smirked and rolled her eyes.
"You'll be fine...but you should talk to her. Maybe she can help."
"She probably can," Shen said with a yawn. "But I'll wait till tomorrow...when the celebration happens..."
The next day was the Winter Feast. Shen had promised a glorious extravaganza of fireworks for the Valley of Peace. Lanying smiled.
"Yeah," she said softly. "Big day tomorrow. I'm going to see if I can get to sleep, too...here's hoping no nightmares hit ME..."
Shen nodded grimly; Lanying, like himself, had suffered from panic attacks since she was a small child. Rather than assist her and console her, her parents had simply thought it best to lock her in a room for the rest of her days. Shen still bristled slightly at the thought...
He had had, and still had, panic attacks as well, but – perhaps because he had almost always had someone there for him, and, until recently, Lanying had not – his were usually less pronounced.
"Goodnight," he said simply, and then rolled over and tried to sleep.
But, even as the peahen beside him fell into slumber, he could not...not with the haunting whispers that seemed to buzz at the back of his mind...
Elsewhere, a lone figure entered the Valley of Peace. It was cold...it was tired...and, madness, was it HUNGRY...
The black thing groaned softly, ducking into an alleyway. It slumped down onto the pavement...and hissed softly, clutching its side.
A red, sticky substance coated its side, mostly dried, and a thin layer of this same vexing, crimson gunk covered its black paws...
Its long pointed ears twitched, and it closed its bright red eyes.
Its arm went limp...
And a red cane, topped with a golden ornament the shape of a dragon's head, with the body and tail painted to spiral down the stick's shaft, rolled out of his grip onto the street.
Its mind was filled with only one thought: a single word, repeating itself constantly, as fell asleep.
Cold, cold, cold...cold...cold...