Sorry for the long wait. For waiting, I've typed up a longer chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 10: The Downfall

The night sky was filled with clouds, the moon showing its face time after time. The air was somewhat chilly and there was barely a breeze to move the leaves of the darkened trees. The villages nearby were silent except for the occasional snore. Even any hidden bandits were asleep. But only one group of bandits ran under the midnight moon. And a group of four was stealthily following them.

"This way," Lynx whispered.

The other three followed silently. They crouched behind several large boulders, since those in front of them had stopped.

"They're stopping for the night," Leopard told her comrades.

The four of them quietly sat down, aware of any movements the thieves made.

"We're so close," Yuan confided to her brother. "When Tui Dong is finally gone, we'll put the Polecats out of business!"

"Too bad Sable had to miss this," Jing told her. "He'd have loved it. The highlight of his career!"

"And the highlight of our careers!" Leopard hissed. "We'll finally be rid of these pesky thieves and the Valley will finally have a peaceful night!"

"Funny," Jing quietly joked, "this is the Valley of Peace. Isn't it supposed to be a little bit more peaceful?"

Yuan rolled her eyes. She looked over at the thieves. They seemed to be discussing something.

She sighed. "Vixey would have loved to be here, too. I guess she's having a better time making friends with Tigress, right?"

Lynx smirked. "Last time I heard," he whispered, "Tigress was an inch from slaughtering her. You think that's changed?"

"Maybe a little," Leopard told him. "A little like Vixey's poking her with a stick and Tigress is now just a teeny, tiny bit from Vixey's demise."

Yuan looked at the thieves again, but they had disappeared.

"Lynx! They're gone!"

They all leapt to their feet. Jing stood by his sister and looked at where the thieves used to be.

Just then, Yuan heard something whistling through the air and Jing suddenly jerked. She looked at him. There was an arrow buried into his back and he fell to the ground.

"Jing!" she cried. "No!"

She cradled him in her arms.

"Run," he told her weakly. "The arrow's too deep and I'm sure it's poisoned."

A tear slid down Yuan's cheek.

"I'm not leaving you!"

"They must have been onto us for a while now. Go and tell Macaque! Please, Yuan!"

She heard the other two fall to the ground and turned to look. Lynx had an arrow in his chest. Yuan was sure he had died immediately. Leopard was struggling to breathe.

She turned back to Jing. His eyes were closed and he had stopped breathing. She carefully laid him on the ground and ran.

One arrow flew past her. Then another. Tears were streaking down her cheeks.

Vixey. I must warn Vixey!

Yuan felt an arrow tear through her clothes and pin her to a thick tree branch. Uninjured but frightened, she frantically tore the sleeve off and tried to escape, but the Polecats had her surrounded with no exit.

"What should we do with this one?" one of the thieves asked his friends. "Slow, painful death?"

"Not the arrow," another spoke, "it's too kind. Let's teach these so called detectives a well-earned lesson!"

Yuan found an exit and started climbing the cliff wall behind her. One of the Polecats aimed an arrow at her. A sure shot.

Yuan was waiting for it. A stabbing pain in the center of her back, but it never came. She could hear something whistling through the air, but no arrow was shot into her body or the cliff beside her. She made it to the top and looked down. Half of the thieves were unconscious and the others were getting ready to shoot at her.

A volley of arrows flew through the air. Yuan knew the only way to evade this was to get low to the ground, but she was sure the Polecats already took that precaution. Suddenly, something that looked like a thick vine flew through the air, all of the arrows either getting imbedded into it or being knocked out of the air. The only arrows that continued onward missed Yuan completely.

A figure - a cat of some species - landed in front of the marten and pushed her away from the cliff. One movement, and a wall of thick vines shot upward, shielding the two.

The figure turned. It was too dark to see if she had spots, stripes, or even if she had any fur markings at all. Her clothes were ragged, as if a group of children had taken them, waving them as flags, and had been running through a briar patch. She had soft blue eyes - the only part of her that calmed the panicked marten down.

Something inside Yuan told her to run, but she just stood there. The figure pointed to her and then to the north. Yuan understood and fled. She looked back in time to see that the figure had just disappeared, leaving the attacking Polecats confused and without a trail.

Macaque woke from his meditations and rose to his feet. He knew there was something terribly wrong.

He walked around the office. It felt like a ghost town. A slight breeze from an open window rustled some papers on Jing's desk. Then he heard something in the building move. He turned toward the sound and inspected it with extreme caution.

Yuan suddenly had her arms around him, her face wet with the many tears straying from her eyes. She was hysterical.

"It was terrible!" she wept. "Dead! They're all dead! We're next!"

"What happened, Yuan?" Macaque asked her softly, trying to calm her enough to understand her better.

"We were following them," the young detective sniffed, "the Polecats. They just disappeared, and then Jing was hit. He and Lynx and Leopard were hit. He died in my arms, Macaque! My baby brother!"

"Try to gather yourself, Yuan!" Macaque chided. "You need to warn Vixey and Sable and then hide!"

Yuan stopped crying and let go of Macaque. As obedient as a teacher's pet, she hurried out the door. She had a job to do.

"Good luck, Yuan," Macaque breathed.

He heard something behind him. He didn't even turn.

"So you came for me," he told the approaching figures.

He stood in the middle of the main room calmly. The Polecats surrounded him. One of the Polecat leaders walked up to him.

"Well, well, old man," he jeered, "we thought you'd be a little harder to catch. And, by the way, you've only delayed that little snitch's death."

"Hm..." Macaque said calmly. "Were you expecting something... more?"

In that instant, Macaque nerve attacked the Polecat. He jumped up and took a board off of the ceiling. Coming down, he swung at the Polecats, taking out three-fifths of the entire force.

The remaining thieves advanced. Macaque attacked in all directions, often taking out two or three each time. The Polecats kept coming. They thought they were overpowering the old monkey, but they could never be more wrong.

Macaque landed on his feet. He was in the center of the room, surrounded by unconscious Polecats. He calmly walked to the door and opened it to leave. However, Sable was about to come in.

"Oh," Sable started. "Hi, Macaque. I was just about to... uh..."

He saw the mass of unconscious Polecats.

"Our business has been compromised, Sable," Macaque told him. "Jing, Lynx, and Leopard have all been killed, and we are all in danger."

"But what about Vixey?"

"Yuan will send her a message. We need to leave now."

...and only I escaped alive. I went back to HQ and told Macaque and saw him get attacked as he was leaving, but he was unharmed. I saw Sable arrive just a little after the fighting ended, and he's on the run, too. I'm on my way to warn your mother, but you need to get out of there NOW!

Sincerely,

Yuan Ye

Vixey closed the scroll. Tears would have started to fall, but she had one last thing to do before leaving.

It was just about dinnertime, so Vixey guessed Tigress would be in the barracks kitchen with the others. She hurried to her destination and stopped in the doorway. What she saw made her drop the scroll.

Po, Viper, Crane, Monkey, and Mantis were passed out on the floor.

"What's going on here?"

Vixey turned to see Tigress, who had just arrived as well. Tigress could see that Vixey's expression was full of shock and complete terror - very much unlike her. She was sure that the skin on her face would be ghostly white if she didn't have fur.

"We need to leave now," Vixey said sharply and in a low voice. "The Polecats are here, now, and they're after both of us. They've already killed three of my friends and will stop at nothing to kill me and capture you. We need to leave now!"

The fox didn't wait for Tigress to respond. She took her wrist and pulled her away.

"Vixey!" Tigress cried. "What about Shifu?"

"There's no time!" Vixey yipped. "We need to leave!"

Several arrows imbedded themselves in the wall next to the girls, barely missing them.

The two escaped the barracks and headed for the ironwood forest behind the Palace. Vixey had let go of Tigress and the two were now running faster. Tigress could see figures moving through the trees on both sides.

"Vixey!" she shouted. "They're moving faster than we are!"

Vixey let out a small growl and took off the kimono, stuffing it into a bag Tigress didn't know the fox had. Then the girls started running on all fours.

They reached the edge of the forest and stopped on the edge of a cliff. Down below was a fast-moving river and a nearby waterfall.

Tui Dong approached the girls.

"Well, hello there, kitty," she said. "Long time, no see!"

"Cut the act, thief!" Tigress spat.

Vixey started growling loudly.

"I'll have your head for what you did to my friends!" she threatened.

Tui Dong laughed. "You and what army, mutt?"

Tigress and Vixey inched closer to the edge of the cliff.

"Now," Tui Dong said, "we can do this the easy way or the hard way."

She signaled to an archer, who aimed at Tigress.

"Come with us, or we'll take you by force."

Tigress continued to glare at the Polecat.

"I'll never go with you."

Tui Dong seemed amused.

"You should have known all this time that we'd find you," she told her, "Shijue."

The last word caught Tigress off-guard.

"Wha-?" she started.

The ground beneath her and Vixey crumbled under their weight. They fell toward the water, but Tigress caught a ledge and Vixey caught her feet.

"Be careful, Tigress!" Vixey called. "They're going around!"

Tigress tried to climb up the ledge, but then she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. She looked and saw that the Polecat's arrow had flown true.

"No!" Vixey cried. "Tigress!"

Tigress could feel the pain disappearing, and her strength was disappearing as well.

Shifu could sense something had happened. He rushed to the barracks and found his five unconscious students. He took a strong-smelling herb from the cabinets and waved it in front of Po's nose. The panda woke immediately.

"What? Who? Where?" Po started. "Master Shifu!"

"What happened, Po?" Shifu demanded, waking Monkey in the same manner.

Po took the small dart from his shoulder.

"... I'm not sure."

"It was the Polecats!" Monkey cried as soon as he regained consciousness. " I saw them right after they drugged Po and Viper!"

Soon, the other three were awake.

"How could they get me so easily?" Mantis asked. "I hate those guys!"

Then they heard a scream coming from beyond the ironwood forest. They recognized it as belonging to Vixey.

Vixey got her head above the water and took a deep breath. She saw Tigress feebly trying to keep her head above the water and swam to her.

"Come on!" she urged. "Stay awake!"

"I... I can't," Tigress managed to say.

Vixey caught a nearby branch, keeping her and her friend a mere two feet from the waterfall. They were just out of the Polecats' reach, and they didn't dare try to drug or kill Vixey.

Tigress felt herself dancing on the line between consciousness and unconsciousness. She saw Vixey's grip fail, and then they were pushed off the falls.

Falling, falling, falling...