Okay, I'm going to be honest here. It's late, I'm tired, I'm aching, and I really can't keep my marbles together long enough to properly edit all of this.

I've done the first section up until the lead-in to the lake scene, but I am SO exhausted, so I'd rather just stick to my schedule and properly edit this tomorrow when I'm alive than struggle through it now. This is quite an important chapter, and takes the story into a more mature and darker area as the end draws near (there is only one more chapter set in-movie after this one, then the nearly-finished epilogue), so I hope that you can all stick with it/me through it.

That said, please forgive any mistakes or rubbish you see, but a chapter is a chapter. I wrote this whole thing in about an hour probably, because I got hooked into the action and it just rolled outta me, which was great fun.

Enough babbling now. Story.

EDIT COMPLETED. I LOVE YOU ALL.


Mulan sighed heavily as she turned the corner and continued to jog down the length of the training camp: Shang had given her laps again.

She was sure it had something to do with her beating him in the practice fight earlier that day. Even if he had congratulated her so quietly and sincerely and made her go pinker than a blossoming tree.

"You brought this upon yourself, you know," Mushu remarked smarmily from her shoulder, where he coiled over her collarbone as his back half sat snugly under her collar.

"I wasn't going to lose on purpose!" she protested. "I didn't even think I'd win in the first place, so why would I try to lose. I hadn't thought that far ahead."

"You see, that's where your problem lies; you just don't know your own strength anymore!" Mushu said rather proudly. "Beatin' up the Captain like that, you shoulda seen his face."

"I did see his face,"she pointed out. "He was very nice about it."

"Yeah, because he had to be," he replied. "It'd hardly look great if he threw a temper tantrum because a little pipsqueak like you knocked him outta the park. Tell me, if he wasn't annoyed why're you running laps again?"

"Well... he..." Mulan mumbled. "Maybe he wants me to keep watch?"

"He didn't tell you to meet up for no special time in his tent afterwards," Mushu retorted. "Girl, he's definitely mad at you."

"He's not!"

"Is so," the dragon snapped, grinning widely and displaying his sharp teeth. "That doesn't bother you does it?" he jibed. "Not being Captain's favourite?"

"No," she mumbled; lying to both her guardian and herself. "Anyway. Maybe he does want me to keep a lookout... and... he... assumes I'll go and tell him if I see anything unusual, without being ordered to." She was reaching the far end of the camp. "I mean if I see any Huns I'll just-"

She slowed suddenly as she came up to the far corner, her eyes riveted on the edge of the forest not far away. Speak of the devil indeed.

"Mulan? Mulan? Just what are you... oh," Mushu stuttered as he too saw the beady yellow eyes flashing in the afternoon light not more than twenty metres away from them, set in a pale and foreign looking face. The archer had his bow raised and loaded already, and Mushu had barely uttered his last syllable when the arrow came hurtling forwards aimed straight for Mulan's chest.

There was no Captain Shang to save her this time, but thankfully some trace of what had happened by the lake took over and she floored herself just in time. The archer had already loaded again and fired towards the ground no more than seconds later, but Mulan was paying attention and rolled to the side, avoiding that as well. She got under the cover of some bushes and scrambled to her feet manically.

"Captai-!" she began to scream, but then realized that it was still the middle of the day, and if she ran screaming up to Shang that there were Huns right by the border of camp firing on soldiers then everyone would know, and Shang had been very clear on that not happening.

She crawled back through the undergrowth to the place where the guerilla had fired on her, and watched the place he had been carefully. If he hadn't gone while she ran off then he must have slipped away without her noticing, because some time passed and nothing more happened, even when Mulan threw a stone into the bushes around where the man had been positioned.

Creeping forwards, she collected the fallen arrows from the ground and hid them up her sleeve. Then she began to tear through camp in search of Shang, who – it being lunch time or thereabouts – she finally found eating in the mess tent with Chi Fu, as they were the only men of rank in camp and had no choice.

"Um... Captain Sha...Captain L... uh Sir," Mulan rushed as she ran over and only just stopped herself bowling straight over the table by accident. Shang flicked his gaze over to her coldly, and opened his mouth to speak.

"What do you think you are doing, Soldier?!" Chi Fu interrupted before Shang could get a word out. "Approaching an Officer and disturbing his meal like this? Know your place!"

"I...uh... Sir....well I have something I really need to show the Captain," Mulan muttered awkwardly, looking around nervously in fear of being watched by anyone.

"What in the Middle Kingdom does that mean?" Chi Fu retorted. "There is nothing a lowly recruit would have of interest to a superior officer. You are made to follow orders, not chase us around like puppies barking for attention to every single stick you..." A loud crack disturbed the Consul's chain of speech, as Mulan had reached into her sleeve and whipped out the arrows, clapping them down roughly against the table top.

"Captain..." she murmured, opening her hand slowly and then returning it to her side. Shang stared at them for no more than a second before his hand swiped across the table and he snatched up both arrows.

"I understand," he said stiffly, standing up without a word to Chi Fu. "Good work, Ping." He strode out of the mess tent purposefully only to be followed by Mulan, who wasn't exactly sure what to do with herself now. Shang walked straight over to the training equipment and armed himself with a proper bow and a short sword, and then turned back to face Mulan.

"Where did they come from?" he demanded, and Mulan pointed in the appropriate direction. Shang nodded and then set off urgently.

"You're going after them, sir?" Mulan said as she followed. "Isn't it dangerous to go alone?"

"Less dangerous than taking an unarmed, unprepared recruit," he replied, shooting an accusatory look at her.

"But what will happen if-"

"Fa Ping," he interrupted harshly. "I appreciate your concern, but this is not something you have any influence over. Yours is not the place to tell me what to do." His look hardened even more. "...Ever. I will be back before training resumes." With that he moved away, leaving Mulan lingering dumbly behind; scared to follow him and scared of what would happen if he never came back.

"I hope he'll be all right," she said quietly to herself, at which Mushu snaked out of her collar to join in watching Shang leave.

"He'll be fine," the dragon assured her. "I mean this is Captain Li Shang! Son of the great General Li! I mean, it's not like he... got beat by a... girl... earlier... today..." They both watched Shang now with a far more morbid air. "Uh-Oh."

"I really hope he's all right," Mulan muttered.

"You and me both," the dragon quipped, sinking back down into her robe.

As it turned out, their worrying was completely unfounded because Shang returned just as he said he would, without so much as a hair out of place; although, his unhappy expression would suggest that he didn't manage to take care of the guerillas as planned.

From this it was easy – if you knew what was bothering him – to see that he was worried, because the next training session that he put the men through was tougher than ever, and if anyone was so much as coping with the original level of weighting or stress he would simply up their burden, so that every single one of them was moving and working to their absolute limits for the whole day.

"Technically speaking, we have now reached the end of the program," he lectured as they all performed routine staff exercises with heavy bags of rice hanging off every limb. "But before you advance any further, you must have the physical strength to support the next level of knowledge. This will be our focus until we receive orders from the front."

Mulan struggled just as badly as everyone else in this exercise, as there was no way to outwit a bag of rice, and she sweated and ached and suffered like everyone, if not worse; although she did manage at least to complete the task without passing out.

By the end of the day - in which the sun had been shining all afternoon - she was hot, sticky and smelt awful. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep feeling so filthy, and just because she looked like a man didn't mean she had to smell like one, so she decided to sneak away from the camp to the lake to wash up. Shang had hopefully scarred the Huns off for the day at least; they were being cautious still so wouldn't to try and attempt any more attacks in the same day... she hoped.

Either way, she was washing whether Mushu liked it or not; although she'd not banked on Yao, Ling and Chien-Po deciding to follow her and give her the biggest fright of her life by jumping into the lake with her. She didn't think she was ever going to recover from seeing the 'king of the rock' standing up there hanging out in all his.... masculinity.

Never ever recover.

Then again seeing the rest of the camp, who decided to follow the other three, stripping off and leaping into the lake was just as bad. She was pretty sure that she never wanted to see a naked man again for a long, long time.

At least Yao and Ling had made peace with her. Naked peace. Mulan shuddered to remember.

However, on her way back she passed Chi Fu's newest tent after she accidentally blew up her first with a rocket. It was lit inside so from her place Mulan could see the silhouettes of the men within. Shang had apparently been summoned before the Consul, and neither of them sounded happy.

Not wanting to be a sneak, but realizing that with the whole issue of her knowing about the guerrillas that Shang and Chi Fu probably thought she was one anyway, Mulan dared to creep up and listen to the exchange between the men.

"You think your troops are ready to fight?! HA!" the Consul screeched. "They would not last a minute against those Huns!"

"They completed their training," Shang replied tartly.

"Those boys are no more fit to be soldiers than you are to be Captain," Chi Fu said poisonously.

"The Guerrillas must be dealt with," Shang argued, ignoring the accusations against his rank. "I cannot track them down alone; not while they know this terrain so well. There are men who are ready to deal with them now."

"How do you propose to defeat them? Make them laugh to death at your inadequacy?" Chi Fu retorted. "Other men who are ready? Here speaks the man who was defeated in the ring by a child today."

"Fa Ping is a competent soldier," Shang spat. "He could outwit you easily."

"Ha! He looks more suited to a harem than an army!" Mulan scowled, but remained crouched by the tent with her ear cocked towards the fabric.

"Once the Emperor reads my report your troops will never see battle. When he sees that you cannot even defeat the threat of a few rouge archers from Shan Yu's army you'll be lucky if you hold onto your position in the army at all, let alone that title of yours."

"Those 'rouges' nearly killed you," Shang pointed out, and then it sounded as if Chi Fu were trying to dismiss him. "We're not finished!" he snapped, and Mulan heard the sound of some kind of scuffling that ended quickly. She almost regretted breaking those Hun arrows now. After all, if she still had them she could shoot Chi Fu and they would assume it was the Guerrillas.

"Be careful, Captain," Chi Fu warned. "The General may be your father, but I am the Emperor's consul.... and oh, by the way, I got that job on my own."

Would they still assume it was Guerrillas if he was repeatedly stabbed? It might work. She was sure no one would miss him. However, before anymore plans to murder could take place she heard the whine of Shang's dismissal and the rustle of fabric as he left the tent. Mulan jumped up and ran around to see the Captain.

"Heeeeey," she lulled in her most masculine voice. "I'll hold him, and you punch!" She had heard Yao saying that to someone a few days ago; that was a manly thing to say, right? "Heh! Heh!" she added for good measure.

Shang walked straight by her. He barely even looked at her.

"...Or not..." She really needed to get a hang of this male conversation thing. Maybe she needed to compliment him? This wasn't really a time for jokes, not if the Captain was really worried. Perhaps it would be better to assure him.

"For what it's worth, I think you're a great Captain," she called out to him as he walked away. Shang paused slightly, glanced back at her, and then kept going. "Damn," she muttered. Not only did that not work, but it sounded way too... she looked down at her feet and saw Mushu positioned there on the ground with his little arms crossed haughtily over his underbelly.

"I saw that," he accused.

"...What?" she responded awkwardly.

"You like him don't you?"

"No-oo," she denied far too obviously. Maybe she liked him just a little. She just... cared about what happened to him, that was all. The thought of Shang treating her like a girl still completely baffled, but as Ping she simply didn't want anything bad to happen to him.

"Hm yeah right, sure, I totally belie- GO TO YOUR TENT!" Mushu commanded, obviously worrying that to allow Mulan any more chances to try and 'comfort' the Captain would not end well. Not if she was still blushing like she was now. Not to mention he had some serious meddling to get up to.

"I think it's time we took this war into our own hands," he muttered to Crick-ee.

"I couldn't agree more," Mulan whispered to herself, overhearing the Guardian as she turned and walked off. "Watch out, Huns, here I come."

She needed a plan, first of all, so while she did return to her tent for a bit, she didn't remain there too long. The problem with guerrillas, she considered, is that they saw you coming before you saw them, and they had the advantage in this terrain. So what Mulan had to do was get to a situation where she could get them into open ground without them killing her first... she needed something to trick them... something...

The idea hit her suddenly, and she almost leapt up in the air at its own brilliance. What a plan! Thank goodness the moon was out tonight, and there was some light to be found. She hurriedly gathered up the things she needed and stuffed them into a cloth pack, then crept out of her tent towards the grazing areas.

"Hey, Khan," she whispered, coaxing her horse over quietly. "Ready to kick some Hun butt?" She untied her horse and walked him out of camp, climbing up onto his back and riding into the cover of the forest as soon as she was outside the camp boundaries. Hopefully no one would miss their being gone, although with the water party at the lake most of the men were technically missing.

Some part of her mind realized that what she was doing was incredibly dangerous, but the other half pointed out that unless someone did something about the Huns then Shang was going to get in even more trouble, and there was something she could do that no one else could.

Ensuring that there really was no one around, Mulan slowly stripped off her fighting robe and unbound her chest. She re-dressed plainly, but let down her wet hair and combed it out into a more feminine style, also wrapping her sheet-blanket around her waist as a loose skirt, and pulled her belt tighter to accentuate her waist.

She armed not herself, but Khan, hiding her bow under the rest of her clothes against his dark hide, and then gathering a bundle of sticks and binding them together around her quiver, so that her arrows were hidden in between a clump of what looked like firewood. She carried only a slim blade used for cutting down vegetation to clear a path, not a fighting sword in by any appearances, and something that she had to make use of as she rode deeper into the forests. The very last thing she snapped from the kindling, and hid against her skin up her sleeve; just in case.

Eventually she had to light a torch as the trees blocked out all the natural light of the night, and she kept her ears and other senses open for the slightest indication of human movement. This plan had better work, she thought to herself.

At long last she heard a noise, and on cue tears began to fill her eyes.

"Papa?!" she screamed as loud as she could, this time swinging the tone of her voice in the completely opposite direction to how she had been speaking for so long now. "Papa?! Where are you?" She sobbed a little for effect, and pulled on Khan's reins clumsily, appearing as if she did not know how to control a horse too well.

"Please Papa!" she cried again, and then the sound that had set her off grew closer. Her heart pounded in her chest. "Papa is that you?!" she said weakly, and then bit her lip as into the light of her torch stepped a tall and pale-faced man, with harsh-cut yellow eyes and a bow poised ready in his hand.

"Oh! Oh!" Mulan shrieked, feigning absolute ignorance. "Sir please don't hurt me!" she wailed. "I was out riding with my Papa and we got separated. I've been looking for him all day and it's getting so late! Please, sir," she begged, "I'll do anything to see my baba again. I'm so scared!"

"You should be, little girl," the man said sinisterly, his bow falling lax in his hand. "These are dangerous parts you've wandered into." Not too sure whether to be pleased or scared, Mulan saw a sparkle of what she assumed to be desire in the man's eye. It had occurred to her that these men must have been camped out here for a long time, and judging from the complaints of all the men back camp, the touch of a woman was something they longed for constantly.

"Please sir, I'm just a lost farm girl," she said breathily, her fingers twitching around the short blade she held on the other side of Khan, hidden from the man's view, although she was sure he knew she had the thing. "If you've seen my papa please tell me where to find him, I'd do anything to get back home." She blinked heavily and the crocodile tears fell from her eyes; she saw the dark look of lust intensifying in the man's face, and he stepped closer.

"Me and my friends can help you find your papa, little girl," he leered. "You can come with us and I'm sure we can find him for you." He took a step closer to the horse. "First, how about you hand me that little knife you have there?" Mulan looked to her hand and then back at him in confusion.

"Oh... y-yes, of course sir," she mumbled bashfully, and held out the handle towards him. The Hun took the blade from her and Mulan felt her heart leap up into her mouth – this was it, this was the deciding moment. She couldn't hesitate now, no matter what the consequences were. She thought of her father. She thought of Shang. "W-where are your friends?" she asked meekly, and the Hun dropped her blade to the ground and took a step closer.

"Just over this hill to the east," he murmured salaciously, "but first, how about a little kiss?" He reached out and grabbed a fistful of Mulan's top, and then pulled her close to him. At that moment she flicked her arm and the broken arrowhead flew out of her sleeve into her hand, where she grasped it tight, and before the Hun could press his thin, pasty lips to hers she plunged it into his neck, twisting it in her fingers – she knew it was a weak point because she felt her own blood beating there when she trained. The Huns bodies were the same as theirs, and they would injure just as easily.

The man's first reaction was shock, as Mulan pushed him backwards and he grasped at his bleeding neck in horror. He staggered back a few steps as blood gushed over his hands, and Mulan leapt from her horse and landed in front of him, crouching down low as she hit the ground and then springing up hard as she lashed out a fierce upward kick to his face, knocking him down and hopefully out for good. She wiped the blood from her hands emotionlessly on her robe and climbed back onto Khan.

She'd known she would have to do this, but she didn't try to fool herself into thinking the man had been any less human than her. She was a soldier, she was going to have to kill sooner or later, and she would pay for it in her next life, glory or dishonour it may be.

Riding up the hill the Hun had described to her in his last words, she heard as he'd promised the sound of men speaking to one another and as she got closer a fire crackling. She dismounted and rested Khan's reins on a tree, asking him to wait there until she got back. Judging from the voices there were only two more, three at most. For the first time Mulan thought not of how to evade or non-lethally beat them, but how to kill them. It was a cold thought, and she felt sure that something had changed now forever with this.

She couldn't give up though. Not now, with the victory she needed not only for her but for her Captain so close. She had to take lives to save lives, and these would only be the first. Her hands shook, but she was otherwise calm.

Her position had the advantage of being on the edge of a ridge, behind which the men had set up a temporary camp – it was advantageous in that unless you'd known it was there you wouldn't have seen it until you reached the very edge of the dip, but Mulan was ready and waiting. Crawling up there on her belly, her bow and arrows by her side, she spotted the three. One short, one tall, and one much more burly than the others.

They looked almost like Yao, Ling and Chien-Po. Mulan closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Lives for lives. These men wanted to kill her Emperor, she reminded herself, and she couldn't let that happen. They also wanted to kill Shang, which just made things personal.

They were gathered around the fire like sitting ducks, drinking from ceramic jugs – drunk, even easier targets – and talking loudly. Their sense of safety had obviously grown after being unchallenged for so long. It wasn't a mistake they weren't ever going to make again.

She crawled right up to the edge and hid behind a tree – bushes had leaves that rustled – as she had to remain unheard. She calmed herself and silently loaded her bow, training her aim on the first one, the tall thin one who would be the smallest target.

"Here goes nothing, Shang," she mouthed to herself, and then released. Her aim was true, taught well by a skilled archer, and the arrow leapt out and drove right into the first man's eye, killing him instantly. The other two stared at him in confusion and horror for a moment, and then their instincts kicked in and they leapt to their feet. Mulan had already reloaded in this moment of delay and before the largest man could take another step he was hit from behind in the middle of the head, falling down dead, to the terror of the last, who fumbled for a weapon drunkly before another arrow came darting out and hit him first in the arm, then a fourth quickly following straight into his chest, stopping his heart and making him crumple slowly to the ground with his comrades.

You needed to fight fire with fire, she told herself, and use guerrilla tactics to kill guerrillas. Their carelessness and overconfidence after living in this region un-threatened for so long, picking off men one at a time as they pleased, had cost them their lives. They would pay for their sins in the next life now, as Mulan would pay for hers. The wheel of life kept on revolving.

She lay there for a few minutes, panting deeply, making sure they were not going to come back; although, it was pretty unlikely. She got to her feet shakily, and staggered back over to Khan, wrapping her arms around his neck for a moment and hugging him. She'd scared herself, and only by clinging close to her horse and thinking of her father could she manage to calm her breathing and stop trembling.

She pulled the pack from Khan's side and changed back into the clothes of a man, of a soldier, and tied up her hair and bound her chest again. Trust her to get covered in blood the day she finally got to bathe. At least her training outfit was clean... ish. There was a little blood splashed here and there on the sleeves from where the first Hun had spurted a bit, but she looked normal otherwise.

Although she wasn't aware of the streak of blood she had across her forehead from where she'd rubbed herself in a daze before wiping his blood off her hands. She climbed up onto Khan and rested her forehead against his neck.

"Lets go back to camp, Khan," she murmured, and slowly they began to move out.


Eeeeh more risky, I know, but something had to give, didn't it? The Mulan Disney didn't show you, heheh.

Leave a Raview if you please.