Hey everyone! Hope you all are enjoying the story, as usual.

Pretty big plot twist at the end of that last part, huh? With Catherine working for Overlord and Monkey dying and all.

By the way, if Monkey was your favorite master, sorry about that.

Anyway, will the heroes capture Catherine? Did Max survive the explosion? Who is the traitor at the royal palace? Continue to read the story to find out!

*With Kiro, a day later*

Most everyone came to the funeral of the beloved monkey master. It had taken place at nighttime, however there were no bright lights from the valley, nor were there sounds of joy and play coming from the children as they ran through the streets. They had the masters and students speak of their fun times with the chimp to start off, had the memorial service for Monkey, then lit a small candle, carefully placed it on a pink flower, then pushed it out on the lake near the palace.

During that time, the white tiger master was standing behind his son, Lily, Ryo, and Catherine.

It wasn't until almost the end of the ceremony when he noticed a tattoo of the symbol with two snakes on the back of Catherine's neck.

It was you… Kiro thought, his eyes wide and anger shooting through his veins.

* With Catherine, three days later, nighttime*

After all that had happened, Cat had decided that it was too dangerous for her to stay with them any longer.

After packing her things and saying goodbye to the warriors and masters, Catherine began her walk down the stairs.

No one could see it, but she had a slight smile on her face. She was proud of herself for fooling them, and was sure that she would get away with them bombing.

Her face dropped, though, when red outlines of chains wrapped around her body and she fell face first into the steps, breaking her nose.

Crying and sniffling, the tigress was pulled to her feet by Kiro and brought back up to the palace courtyard. Once inside, Kiro flung her forward and she smacked into the ground.

"What the heck, Kiro? Why'd you do that?" Crane asked in anger running towards the two tigers.

"You think you're clever, huh?" Kiro seethed, paying no mind to the avian master and walking towards the sniffling Catherine. "Kill my friend and one of my students and then just leave like nothing happened!"

"What is he talking about?" Mantis asked, hopping on Crane's shoulder.

"YOU'LL PAY!" Kiro shouted, lunging at the tigress, but before he could reach her, Po and Tigress grabbed his arms and held him back.

"Kiro! Stop!" Tigress commanded.

"Please! Just…stop! I…I…What did I…do?" Catherine sobbed, rolling over to face the infuriated white tiger.

"Kiro! What'd she do?" Viper asked, slithering up to the scene.

By this time, all of the students were standing at the entrance of the palace, watching the confrontation unfold.

"SHE KILLED MONKEY AND MAX!" Kiro yelled, struggling against the Dragon Warrior and his sister.

"What…?" Cat asked, sniffling.

"You can't prove it!" Po argued.

"Sure can! Let me go and I will!"

Tigress and Po exchanged nervous glances, but reluctantly let him go. The white tiger master stormed up to the sobbing tigress, grabbed her bag, and held it up for all to see.

"I'll bet she has more bombs in here!" He exclaimed before dumping out her contents, only to reveal her personal grooming tools and some clothes. "Well that's not what I expected to find…"

"Can we stop this and get her some medical attention?" Viper groaned.

"Not yet! I know for a fact that she has a tattoo of two intertwined snakes on the back of her neck! I've been studying that symbol, and I think it means death. It was on the door when Kai died, and it was on the hospital door when Mr. Ping died, and it was on the old Emperor's jail cell wall when he died!"

Kiro grabbed Cat and flipped her over, only to find that there was nothing where the marking had once been.

"Paint works wonders…" Only Kiro heard the young tigress murmur.

"Okay. I know this looks bad, but trust me on this one! Will someone get me some water? If this doesn't work, then I'll let her go! I swear!" The white tiger pleaded.

Takami sighed, went into the palace and returned with a bowl of water a few minutes later.

Kiro grabbed the bowl and poured it on the spot where Cat's tattoo once was, making the orange paint wash off and reveal the tattoo of two intertwined snakes.

The masters gasped and Catherine's face sunk in defeat. She knew that she had been found out.

Bingo… Kiro thought.

*With Max*

The Bengal tiger continued to slowly make his way through the jungle. After the explosion, he had been thrown about a mile away from the palace and into this forest. In the process he had broken his right arm and twisted his left ankle when he hit the ground, which made the process painstaking. It didn't help that he was knocked unconscious upon impact and had only woken up around midday.

"My arm is killing me and my ankle feels like it'll pop off at any second, but I have to get back to the others." Max assured himself as he made his way through some shrubs.

Eventually, around a half hour later, the tiger had made it out of the jungle and was standing at the bottom of the Jade Palace steps.

"Oh, this'll be a challenge." Max muttered before starting the grueling process of climbing the stairs.

*With Sin*

It had been months since the brown and grey fox had seen his friends at the Jade Palace.

Ever since his brother's death, Sin had kept himself secluded from the group, making sure as to keep them out of harm's way.

Little did he know that that wasn't the case. Far from it, in fact.

Sin stood in front of Kai's grave and sighed deeply before kneeling down to the tombstone and rubbing some mud speckles off of the name plaque.

It read: Kai Tuyado Fox. A kind brother and a faithful friend, until the end. RIP.

Sin wiped a few tears away from his eyes and stood up.

You were right, bro. I am in over my head.

"Sin!"

The fox turned to see a wolf with a sword strapped to their side running towards him.

"I have a message for you!" They called out.

If only I'd listened to you sooner…

*With Drift, five minutes later*

The hyena looked around the area outside of Chao, Specter, and his room, making sure that no one was watching.

No one was.

Drift slid open the door and crept inside and began to rummage through Chao's drawer first.

"Come on, you gotta have some incriminating evidence in here somewhere…" The hyena muttered to himself as he searched through another container.

He stopped, though, when a dagger flew across the room and smacked into the wall.

Drift turned to see a stern Chao in the doorway.

"Get outa my drawer." He stated. "Do I rummage through your things?"

*With Chao, fifteen minutes earlier*

The tiger had already gone through all five of Drift's shelves and drawers, searching for any evidence, but found nothing.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Good. I was worried there for a little while, with his suspicious activity and all." Chao said to himself, breathing a sigh of relief.

*With Dega, Arizona, and Sierra, a half hour later*

"You had me fooled for a while there, Catherine. Tell me, are you really from Europe?" Dega questioned.

The heroes had bound Cat to a chair tightly, making it impossible for her to move. They had placed her in Master Shifu's old room, which was dark, dusty, and perfect for interrogation.

"I said my mother was from Europe, you dolt!" Cat spat. "I don't have to answer any questions of yours!"

"If you don't, then we get to let Kaizer come in and…persuade you." Zona stated gravely.

"You wouldn't." The tigress hissed.

"We would! You see, you killed one of our friends, and one of our masters, who happened to be friends with the other masters! All of this put together, and they've handed us a blank check to do whatever we want to get information out of you." Dega explained, smiling sinisterly. "Anything. We. Want."

"Throw your worst at me! I dare you!" Catherine snarled.

"Wish granted! Kaizer! Oh, Kaizer!" Dega called. "Ugh, you can never find a rage-driven ex-assassin when you need one!"

Just then, Kiro stepped into the room, holding Zina's half face mask, which she had lost in a fight a few months ago. "Actually, she can."

Cat stared daggers as the tiger master.

"Please. Spare me the tough act. You're scared and I can practically smell it." Kiro stated, sniffing the air. "Actually, I can smell it. It actually…smells kinda grimy. Can we get some air freshener in here?"

"Dad…" Dega prodded.

"Right. Anyway, you've seen this before haven't you? This belongs to an assassin that I used to know a little while ago. Zina. You remember her? You should."

"I've never met anybody with the name of Zina."

"Bring Musaki in! We need to see if she's lying!" Sierra called.

Eventually, the panda was brought in and sat down in front of Cat.

"So…You're the one who killed Max." Musaki said in a hoarse voice. The panda tightened his fist like he was going to punch her, but unclenched it and sighed. "I'm alright. I'm okay. Alright, say what you said before."

"I never knew anyone named Zina." Cat seethed.

Musaki thought for a moment and continued to study her closely. "Say it again."

"How many times do I have to say it? I. Don't. Know. A. Zina."

The panda was silent for a moment, then made his decision when her eyes darted to the left for a second in nervousness.

"She's lying."

"WHAT?" Catherine shouted in anger, shaking her chair in fury.

"Guys! You gotta come here!" Everyone in the room heard Kovu call from the main hall.

As the heroes and the master exited the room, the tiger lion turned back to face the battered and angry Catherine.

"I don't normally hit girls…but they usually don't kill someone like my buddy-bro." Dega stated softly before lunging towards her and slamming his fist into her jaw, making the tigress fall backward and slam her head into the ground, knocking her unconscious.

Stay quiet…for your sake. The tiger lion thought before exiting the room, only to find Max standing at the entrance of the palace, wincing in pain, but smiling.

There it is! That's the end of that chapter!

Is it getting interesting yet? No? Darn…

Sorry for so many OCs. I know it can be very confusing and hard to follow, but stick with me; there won't be that many to keep track of soon enough…

Anyways, I won't be posting for a couple of days. I have to go to traffic court, due to my car crash I talked about in my last story. I also have a funeral to go to on Thursday. Don't worry, these two events are not related to each other.

Remember to leave a review!

More to come…eventually.