Notes: Here's your wish, Shen's Follower. (Whoever you are...) Lanying and Shen interaction here. Expect the return of the Soothsayer in Chapter 5! Thanks for the reviews!

Chapter 4: Curiouser and Curiouser...

Sheng Li kept his sleeves folded together as he stood outside the door of Lady Biming's infirmary room. He frowned slightly as he noted Po, also standing outside the door beside him...about to nod off to sleep out of boredom.

The panda's eyes would flutter closed, he'd snore once...and then he would awake, shaking his head fast and mumbling incoherently.

Every. Five. Seconds.

Frankly, it was getting on the peacock's nerves.

"You know," he said after a while, "you could go do something else...I'm sure the kitchen misses you..."

"No way," said the panda, having just awakened again. "She's my mom, and I don't wanna take the chance; that guy might hurt her."

Shen snorted.

"Oh, he'll do plenty more than that..."

Shen pursed his beak quickly...that probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.

Thankfully, Po seemed not to notice, having briefly nodded off again.

Master Shen just rolled his eyes.

The door opened with a soft creak, and both the panda and the peacock backed away slightly, eyeing Lady Biming expectantly as she came out. Her face was utterly unreadable.

"Well?" asked Shen. "How is he?"

"Well...I can't account for his mind," said Biming with a soft sigh, "but his body should be mostly healed within a few weeks...his wounds looked worse than they really were. He may carry a scar in his side, and that coughing will stick around for some time after his injuries are through closing up, but he'll endure."

"Whether that's good or bad has yet to be determined," muttered Shen.

Biming nodded slightly.

"Won't he try to escape?" asked Po.

"Not a chance, my Jade," smiled Lady Biming. "I slipped him a sedative after you two walked out...he'll be sleeping like a frog on a log for at least another few hours."

"Good," said Shen, staring at the door as if he could see through it. "I'll come back later to check on him personally."

"I'll be in and out myself," said Biming. "Those shackles...they will keep him down, won't they?"

"They're THE best cuffs!" said Po emphatically, mirroring his own words upon being captured by Shen's forces a while back. "The more you move, the tighter they hold you. Not even Tai Lung could get out of them without some sort of lock pick!"

"Unless you left anything sharp near him..."

"I'm not that silly, Sheng Li," said Biming.

There was a moment of silence.

"Well..." said Po, and cleared his throat, "I'd...better see how my little sis is doing...you want to come, mom?"

"Sure," was the simple reply, spoken once more with that mothering smile Shen knew so well as the two walked off. Shen watched them go, sighed softly and went off on his own way."

He soon came to his destination: a door with a sign on it that read, painted elegantly with an ink-dipped calligraphy brush, "Please knock – softly – before entering."

Shen chuckled to himself and did so.

He heard a soft fluttering sound, and the door opened.

"Oh!" came a surprised voice. "Shen!"

It was Lanying. She smiled up at her husband.

"Hello," said Shen with a small smile of his own. "May I come in?"

Lanying sighed.

"Sure, come on in," she said. "I can't think of anything right now, anyway..."

Shen entered the "studio" of his bride. The room was filled with paintings, some of them easily distinguished as students and servants of the Jade Palace, a single painting of Grandmaster Shifu himself, and an immensely wide landscape painting of the view from the Valley of Peace of the Palace itself. Shen grinned, noting there were at least three paintings of himself...perhaps more, hidden under the vast multitudes that covered the walls.

Lanying stood before the scroll on her easel, her brush and paints laid aside, staring thoughtfully at the parchment, as if she meant to search it for the subject she wished to create next.

"Dead spell?" asked Shen simply, "hands" behind his back as he gazed at her curiously.

"So to speak," sighed Lanying. "I've painted Nana, you, the Five, the Dragon Warrior...even the Grandmaster! To say nothing of all the servants...and I MEAN all of them. I can't seem to decide on what to paint next...and, while I've done all repeat subjects before, I don't feel like doing that now."

"I see."

Lanying just shrugged and turned to him with a small, nervous looking smile.

"So, how's the nutcase?"

Shen's smile faded. Now it was his turn to sigh.

"Lady Biming says he'll make a full recovery in a few weeks...I'm not so sure whether to be relieved or regretful for that news."

Lanying just nodded.

"Why did you bring him here, anyway?"

Shen kept silent for such a long time she had begun to think he wouldn't answer...

Until he exhaled loudly and did.

"It's because of something the panda did..."

"Po?" Lanying said, genuinely surprised. "What's that?"

"When we were...you know, and he managed to defeat me, he came up to me after he sank my ships and destroyed my cannons. He could have killed me then...he could have killed me at any time for what I did to him. He didn't. He actually tried to offer me a chance to redeem myself."

He chuckled.

"I refused, of course...my real reformation came later, as you know."

"I don't think this panther WANTS redemption, Shen."

"I don't know if I want to try," said the peacock with a shake of his head. "All I know is that I couldn't let him die...it reminded me to much of myself and the panda at that moment."

He paused, and began to pace around.

"He's like me, Lanying...and he isn't. We both have interest in fireworks, and, in terms of the way he works and how I used to work, our methods are similar. Nana and the others tell me I'm 'okay' now, but I've never fully agreed...I've always got the nagging feeling I'm still at least somewhat screwloose. He's just an extension of that. Where our real differences lie are these three things: first of all, and most importantly, everything I've ever done – good or bad – was done for a purpose. This madman just kills and steals, and he does so relentlessly, with no given motive behind it other than the sole purpose of DOING it. He had some 'tragedy' in his past, yes, but, unlike me, that isn't what drives him...for him, it's more of a childish excuse than a real reason for what he does. I don't think he ever even believed in the cause he was fighting for...he just wanted the pleasure that working for that cause would give him."

He paused.

"That's two things," said Lanying. "What's the third?"

"That I don't know him. Not really. He knows more about me than I find comfortable, but I know only the smallest bit about him."

He turned to her, looking into her eyes almost sadly.

"Maybe that's why I see so much of myself in him...I have no other basis to work with."

Lanying nodded in understanding. Both of the peafowl were silent for a moment.

"You know," began the Java peahen after a moment, "there is a fourth difference between you two..."

"What?" asked Shen, raising an eyebrow.

Lanying smirked.

"You're a peacock. He's a panther."

Shen smirked and rolled his eyes.

"In any case," he said. "I don't know what to do yet...when he heals. I suppose I'll have to send him to Gongmen as a prisoner..."

Lanying shrugged.

Shen stared at the ground thoughtfully...

Then his eyes lit up.

"Perhaps there's something in my dreams," he murmered.

Lanying looked at him doubtfully.

"Maybe," she said. "If not, I still think you should talk to Nana about them."

Shen nodded.

"And that's exactly what I'll do. I'll see you later, my dear."

And without another word, he left the room.

Lanying smiled after him, and then turned around back to her scroll.

After a moment, she smiled.

She took up a brush and some red paint...