Introduction:

Happy Valentine's Day, Kung Fu Panda fans! I'm the Cool Kat (an ironic username for someone who's a wolf/dog lover), and this is my first Kung Fu Panda fanfic. Kung Fu Panda fans (Wolf Boss fans in particular), you're probably reading this story for the same reason I wrote it - because you recently saw Kung Fu Panda 2, and couldn't bare the thought of Lord Shen killing off one of your favorite characters in the movie. Ever since I watched Kung Fu Panda 2 on DVD in December, I've been reading all kinds of Wolf Boss fanfiction, and was surprised by what I found. Some stories were soft and touching like "Sometimes A Wolf Gets A Second Chance" (by Animation Universe 2005), others like "Erdan" (by Wolflover111), were gut-wrenchingly sad, and some were noble and inspirational, like "Strength in Unity" (by Hidden Stranger).

After suffering through writer's block for three long months, I decided to try my hand at writing a Wolf Boss story, and a revised version of that became "Lazarus", an upcoming fanfic about Wolf Boss and his army turning to Po for a chance at redemption. It was a bit of challenge, since I had only written Balto stories before then, but I was looking forward to it. For once, I was writing for animal characters who actually had thumbs and walked on two legs as well as four (Balto fics are fun to write, but they're always so limiting). Another problem was coming up with a name for Boss Wolf. Since the character had only a supporting role in the movie, the writers and producers of Kung Fu Panda 2 never bothered to come up with a name for him. After trying countless Chinese and American names, I chose 'Zhong', a name conceived by American Universe 2005 and Son of Wind in late 2011. I asked for their permission, and they graciously allowed me to use it in this story (Thanks Ani, I owe you one). "Lazarus" is due to be released soon, but the story you're about to read is actually a side project, another compelling idea I conceived midway through writing "Lazarus".

This story is actually a crossover between two of my favorite Wolf Boss fics, "Erdan" and "Sometimes A Wolf Gets A Second Chance". Even though they're both centered around the same character, the two stories are polar opposites. One's a sad tale about an orphan boy and a doomed soul, while the other is an uprising story about a wolf desperately trying to fix the mistakes he made in the past. While I was surfing the net and brainstorming about what my first Kung Fu Panda fic would be about, I began to wonder about what would be the next step in Erdan's journey after his friend's death. The author respectively chose to end the story abruptly, with the young cub suffering a terrible loss, and I figured that the kid's story needed a happy ending, or at least something close to that. I was also intrigued by Animation Universe's decision to introduce a love interest for Zhong in "A Holiday Romance", and I realized that I also wanted to know the next step in their relationship. From there, I decided to incorporate Ani U's version of Wolf Boss and Shu into this story, and it quickly became a crucial part of the plot.

Like all of my past stories, "Erdan 2" contains several orchestral tracks from the British sci-fi series, "Doctor Who", as a way of underscoring some of the more emotional scenes. But it also contains a few tracks from the "Back to the Future" trilogy later on, as the story switches gears. Though I used "Doctor Who XI" frequently in "Heritage of the Wolf", the opening track in this story is a different, more rock and roll-y variation of the "Doctor Who" theme song, as a way of emphasizing the differences between Balto's story and Zhong's. Anyway, this story is rated T, for mild language and brief action violence. I hope you post plenty of reviews for this story, and I'll try to update chapters as frequently as I can.

Chapter 1: The Letter (Memories).

Over five hundred years ago, the sun rose over the land of ancient China. The planet Earth was not quite the world we know today, as the world was still rapidly changing with each century. During those days, the population of China was entirely made up of talking animals, who had formed their own villages thousands of years before. Most of these villages were inhabited by leaf-eating herbivores, who considered these towns to be a place of sanctuary - one of the few places in China where they were safe from predators.

While smaller animals like pigs, ducks, rabbits, goats and geese lived most of their lives in peace and serenity, they were constantly targeted and bullied by the larger animals, such as crocodiles, tigers, leopards, rhinos and oxen. But the most notorious and feared predator in China was the Asian wolf, a more vicious and aggressive relative of the North American gray wolf.

Wolf bandits had terrorized the peaceful country of China for decades now, especially the villages near Gongmen City, where Lord Shen and his wolf army had once resided. For twenty-five long years, Shen ordered his canine cohorts to regularly raid nearby towns for refined metal, so he could melt it down and craft his doomsday cannon. From there, the peacock emperor would conquer all of China. China's salvation finally came when the legendary Dragon Warrior defeated Shen, and his wolf army was slaughtered by their own leader during the final battle of Gongmen City. Ever since then, wolves across all of China had went into hiding, as they were all shamed and ridiculed for the actions of their western brothers.

But as the sun slowly rose over the horizon, one lonely wolf pup climbed up a steep hill, knowing his destination was only a few miles away. This wolf was neither a predator, nor a thief; in fact, he was the exact opposite. The fourteen year old orphan had traveled all the way from Gongmen City so he could find the legendary Valley of Peace, the one place he knew he'd be accepted for who he was, instead of what he was. It had been a long and painful journey, he was still just a child and had had to walk all the way across all of China on foot. Even for an animal with as much stamina as a wolf, it was still quite a challenge. The boy's feet ached and he wanted more than anything to stop and rest for a bit, but he knew he couldn't - not when he was so close.

During his journey, he had been ridiculed and picked on by all kinds of animals, simply because he was a wolf. And to the eyes of almost everyone in China, that automatically made him a monster. The boy knew exactly how this great injustice had came to be, since he had lived with the man who helped create it for several months. After two and a half decades of giving his own species a bad name, the man's past had finally caught up with him, and it cost him his life. The boy knew he should have hated the man for what he did, but his heart ached whenever he even thought of him. Because he knew, that despite everything he had done, all the damage he had caused, the man didn't deserve to die - no one did. Still, the wolf pup tried to focus on completing his journey, as he was now almost over the last hill. Finally, the boy reached the top, and stared down at the village that laid below.

Erdan admired the Valley of Peace from afar - the home of the Dragon Warrior. Along with the Dragon Warrior, Master Shifu and the Furious Five resided inside the Jade Palace, the home of the deceased Grand Master Oogway. It was supposedly the stuff of legends, but Erdan was now only a few miles away, seeing it with his own eyes. High above the Valley, resting on top of a mountain, he could see the Jade Palace - living proof that all the legends were true. Erdan knew that it should have been the most amazing moment of his life, something he would treasure in his heart forever. But something was keeping him from enjoying it fully, something that brought him to tears everytime he even thought of it. Or rather, someone. Despite his amazing achievement, Erdan was still sad inside, because he wished his friend Yu could be there to experience it with him.

As soon as the one-eyed wolf's face appeared in Erdan's memories, tears flowed down the orphan's face. Erdan had met the middle-aged wolf about eleven months ago, back when he was only thirteen years old. Erdan became an orphan when his parents were killed by wild cats, and had traveled to Gongmen City in hopes of finding a job to support himself. After arriving, he had been harassed by a few bitter wolf soldiers, before being saved by a one-eyed stranger named Yu. Yu had kindly suggested that Erdan stay with him until he found a place of his own, the orphan had gladly said yes.

As the months went by, Erdan had begun suspect Yu was hiding something, but never questioned him about it. Instead, he had gotten closer and closer to the compassionate stranger every day, until he began to see him as his adoptive father. In the last month he spent living with Yu, the wolf had been disappearing a lot, claiming he was staying late at work, while Gongmen City was being destroyed more and more each day. Finally, Yu gave the boy a tearful goodbye, before disappearing for good. That night, Gongmen Wharf was destroyed in a fiery explosion and young Erdan lost his best friend forever. Four days later, Erdan had received a good-bye letter hand-written by Yu, which the general had ordered one of his cadets to deliver to Erdan in the event of his death.

As tears continued to flow uncontrollably down the orphan's face, he reached into his pocket and extracted a crumpled-up piece of paper. Even though he knew looking at the paper would bring him no kind of comfort, it was the only tangible memory he had of Yu, and he had kept it close to him ever since he left Gongmen City. By the now, the letters were a bit smudged, since the paper had been stained dozens of times by the boy's tears, but it was still mostly readable. For two-dozenth time since his friend's untimely death, Erdan read the heart-breaking letter in his mind. He could almost feel the sorrowful emotions Yu must have felt when he wrote it.

Dear Erdan,

I'm so, so sorry. I know I should have told you the truth a long time ago, but I was too much a coward to ever let anyone know the truth about me - the real me. I don't quite know how to say this, but I've done many wrongs in my life. I joined Shen's army after my wife and child and many of my pack were killed by pandas. I wanted revenge so badly that it blinded me into doing things no sane person would do. I've killed and tormented hundreds of people out of loyalty to a war crazed peacock and hate for life after my family and friends were slaughtered. In doing so, I dragged my pack behind me, and it turned them spiteful - I turned them into something they were not.

Until I met you.

You were my salvation. You reminded me so much of me when I was young and you reminded me of my own son. That might be why I took you in. You made my life worth living. You were so nice to me and you didn't judge me.

I'm sorry, but if you're reading this, then I'm dead and Shen is defeated - just like it was foretold decades ago. I would not advise you to stay here. The people here hate wolves, and now that Shen is gone you will be ridiculed for something you hardly knew about. You don't deserve that. You deserve better, better than me.

There is a town in the East called the Valley of Peace. You should go there. It's where the Furious Five and Dragon Warrior live - the best Kung Fu warriors in all of China, supposedly. I fought them once and when I did I knew, I just knew I had picked the wrong side in this war. If I had been less of a coward maybe I could have been on the right side. I know you can be on the good side, I've seen how good you are at fighting. I think they would be happy to have someone as good as you. You have a strong will and you deserve a lot. I hope that you live and long happy life.

P.S. If you ever meet the Dragon Warrior, tell him that I'm sorry - for everything. For taking his family away from him, for almost killing him, and for that time I hammered him in the face.

Goodbye Erdan, and thank you.

- Your friend, Yu.

Erdan quickly took the paper, folded it up, and stuffed it back into his pocket. He couldn't bear to look at it anymore. He wished he had just left the letter behind in Yu's empty hut when he left Gongmen City, like how he had left his bandanna behind by accident. It's what he should have done. It's what most people would have done. But he knew that could never let it go, no matter how much pain it caused him. The letter had been written to him by Yu right before his untimely demise, which meant that whether Erdan liked it or not, it was a part of him now. The only thing that stopped him from having a complete emotional breakdown was the same thing that had kept him going for the past six months, and that was the fact he was fulfilling Yu's final wishes.

Erdan took a deep breath, calmed himself down enough to think rationally, and started walking down the hill - his new life in the Valley of Peace was now only a few hours away.

"Doctor Who: Series 4 Opening Credits" by Murray Gold begins.