Viper was lifting the last tangle of noodles to her mouth when she heard a sharp gasp. Su had dropped her dumpling, an expression of pain and shock on her face. "Honey?" Anwu and Pong crouched over their daughter, while the nearest villagers bore looks of concern. Qiang had left to relieve himself.

Su gasped again and pulled at her dress, exposing her lower torso. Viper dropped her chopsticks when she saw the fresh cut on her side. Anwu let out a strangled cry. "Su! What happened?!"

"I... I don't..." Su looked frightened as she then pulled apart her neckline, revealing a second cut on her chest.

Viper took a closer look, and hissed. "These were caused by blades!" She shot an accusing look at the villagers.

"We did not do this, we swear!" said a ram who had posed as one of the illusionary monsters.

"Viper, you know those cuts weren't there several minutes ago." Boar said from where he was leaning against one of the houses. Indeed, several minutes ago after Anwu had told Viper about her deal with Meng Po she'd taken Su for a much needed bath. Viper had gone with them, so she'd seen that Su's flesh had been perfectly unharmed. The snake looked around. There was nothing nearby that could have cut the girl like this.

Just when she thought things couldn't get any more disturbing, a young rabbit native to the village screamed. For good reason too, for a puncture wound had just opened up above the cut on Su's chest.

Su let out a third, tiny gasp and collapsed in her mother's arms.

Anwu was nearing hysteria. "Oh gods! Oh no! What's happening?! What's going on?!"

The villagers were all in varying degrees of shock. Even Boar looked scared now. "Someone get her into the hut and find Master Shifu!"

There was a hammer in Viper's chest as she followed Su's parents into the hut while Boar ran off to retrieve the red panda. Anwu and Pong lay Su on the table, where the cub regained consciousness. "Mommy?" She asked before blacking out again.

Anwu was too busy holding back sobs to answer.

Qiang entered at that moment. "Hey, why're you all cooped up in here when there's a feast?" His jolly grin faded when she saw Viper's expression. He saw Anwu and Pong hunched over Su, concealing her from his sight. He walked over, reaching out to gently part them. "Is everything alright? What's the CRISIS?!"

Shifu and Mengxiang's timing couldn't have been more perfect as they rushed into the room, followed closely by Boar. Viper explained what had happened as calmly as she could, and Shifu strode over to check the girl himself, and his ears flattened when he saw the puncture wound. Qiang was digging his fingers into his head. "We need to stitch her up! Needle and thread... hurry before she bleeds to death!"

"No." Shifu said. "No... I don't think that will be necessary."

For one horrible moment, Viper thought that Su was already dead. But then Shifu asked for, of all things, a jug of water. Most of them thought he had finally gone senile, leaving Mengxiang to fulfil his request. There was a strange look on her face as she handed him a heavy clay jug.

Viper and the pandas stared, flabbergasted, as Shifu proceeded to gently pour water over the girl's body. Before their eyes the cuts closed, and the scars faded. A peaceful little smile grew on Su's face as she slept on the soaked table.

Boar was the first to speak. "... What was that?"

Shifu put the jug beneath the table. "Water makes Su stronger. It's how the Emperor survived Tujiu's assassination. I figured it out when we were travelling through the mines."

Pong's mouth opened and closed, making no sound. A wide eyed Anwu ran over finger's over Su's body, as if checking to see if the wounds had really just disappeared.

"Master, what... wha... why..." Viper stammered.

Shifu pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know. I really don't know."

"Maybe you don't." Boar said, his default stern expression back on his face. "But she does."

He jerked his thumb hoof at Mengxiang. The pheasant had turned as pale as a feathered dumpling. Unable to support herself from sheer shock, she was leaning on the wall. She stared at Su as if she were a ghost. "Can't be real..." She slapped herself with both wings. When she seemingly realised she wasn't dreaming, her legs gave out.

"Mengxiang?" Shifu asked.

Mengxiang slid to the floor. "There is only one person I know who could do something like that. But it can't... it can't be... that little girl can't be..."

Su opened her eyes, stirred from sleep by Mengxiang's mumbling. Still lying down, she turned her head to look at the pheasant, deep blue eyes narrowing in concern. "Dreamer? What's the matter?"

At that, Mengxiang seemed to stop breathing entirely. "Out." She whispered. "Everyone who isn't Shifu and mo- Su... get out."

Naturally Su's parents and Qiang protested.

"Mengxiang, they're her parents. Whatever you have to say about her, you can say it to them as well." Viper said sternly.

"No!" Mengxiang snapped. She covered her face, curling into a ball as she rested against the wall. "No! Too many... too many people. You can... you can tell them when I'm done."

Both Viper and Shifu saw that her distress was genuine. Shifu turned to the others. "I'm sorry, but if we're going to get anything out of this woman you'll have to leave."

The pandas did not take kindly to this. Even when they agreed, Boar still had to escort them from the hut. Viper wrapped the tip of her tail around the door handle, ready to close it behind her as she followed them out. "No. Not you." Mengxiang said, with more composure with less people in the room. "You have... memories I need to see more clearly."

Viper had no idea what she was talking about as she shut the door and moved herself closer to Su.

Mengxiang wiped her eyes. She stood up, her pale clothes covered in dust from the floor, and wandered over to Su. With quaking feathered fingers she stroked Su's forehead. She wiped away the tiny trickle of blood that had escaped the puncture wound. She found the chair by the table and sat down, still staring at the girl as if unsure that she was real. Su stared back for some time before passing out again.

Shifu seemed to sense that she still wasn't ready to speak, so spent several minutes explaining to Viper everything Mengxiang had told him about Ember before Boar interrupted them. To say that Viper was appalled at the true extent of Ember's suffering would be a great understatement. She'd known that the Dragon Empress had suffered severe burns after an attack that left her immobile for nearly three decades, but to lose her own child at the hands of her own sister... She was still fighting back tears as she turned to the pheasant, tired of waiting.

"Mengxiang, what is going on?" Viper asked, releasing a small sob in between words.

Mengxiang hugged herself, her eyes staring at nothing. "After escaping the prison, you encountered something in the forest, didn't you?"

"How did you know?"

"She reads minds." Shifu said bluntly, but Viper had already found out for herself. As he was speaking, she felt something warm seep into her head through her eyes and pull up the memory of the black creature to the surface. A chill ran up her spine and she gasped. Shifu glared at the pheasant. "That's my student you're violating. Enough!"

The warm sensation disappeared, leaving Viper with her heart racing. Mengxiang looked very deep in thought. "So that's what happened to the soldiers we couldn't find..." Viper heard her mutter. "But it didn't hurt the snake... it didn't want her... it's after the Children of Nuwa."

"What is she talking about, Viper?" Shifu asked.

Viper would have told him, but she wanted more than anything to find answers to what had just happened to Su. "Later." She said before addressing Mengxiang again. "Why did Su call you Dreamer?"

"Dreamer was my nickname. No-one called me that except my closest siblings and my mother."

"You said that Hei Nuwang and Ember are your sisters." Viper said. "But Hei Nuwang's a... just to be clear, you're all adopted, right?"

"No. We all carry the same blood."

Viper and Shifu stared at the avian. "How is that possible?" Shifu asked.

"It's quite simple, really. We were all born from the same mother." With that, Mengxiang stroked the top of Su's head. "I can't believe it... after so long... but Meng Po told us it was impossible..."

Viper slithered onto the table and coiled by Su's side, the tip of her tail on the girl's chest.

"Tell us about your mother." Shifu said.

Mengxiang smiled for the first time that day. "Mother was everything to us. She was beautiful, kind... but when she needed to be she was also fierce and powerful. So powerful that she could command the energy of the universe, and bend it to her will. It was unique, wonderful gift, one that even her brother Fuxi, the great serpent, did not possess."

"Fuxi?" Viper looked at Shifu, and he looked just as perplexed as she felt. What did that mad cobra have to do with this? "Fuxi never had a sister."

Mengxiang scowled. "If you ever bothered with history in school, then you would know that he did."

Shifu silenced Viper with a raised hand before she could retort. "How did your mother die?"

Mengxiang got off the chair and turned away, not wanting the two to see her anguish. "If you ever meet Hei Nuwang, the chances are she will tell you that our mother's death was Oogway's fault. But it all started when a great demon invaded the mortal realm and attacked the Valley of Peace. He had heard tales of Mother's powers. She had it and he wanted it. He attacked the Valley to take that power by force... he failed of course... but Mother... she perished."

"I'm sorry." Viper said softly.

Shifu's ears had gone completely flat. "You said she could command the energy of the universe."

Mengxiang turned back to face them, her eyes still narrowed in grief. "I did, and it's completely true. Chi flows through all living things, even the plants and the water. Through the water, Mother could access the chi of the universe itself. With that power she could not only heal and give life... but create it."

"Wait!" Viper snapped. "Wait just a minute! Are you telling me that Fuxi, the rogue snake who tried to drive the Valley to madness, had a sister who could control the energy of the universe?" She looked at Su then back at Mengxiang. "That's ridiculous, you just told Master Shifu that she died nine hundred years ago!"

Mengxiang rubbed her forehead. "You are as oblivious as the panda."

"Don't change the subject! If this is your idea of a joke, it's not funny!" She started to say more... but then she completely froze as it dawned on her. "Wait... wait..."

Shifu's eyes had gone very wide. "Wait... You're not talking about him. The deity he was named after! But the only family he had was..." His white furry face turned paler than what was ever thought possible. His staff clattered to the floor and rolled across the boards until it hit the leg of the table Su lay on. "Oh gods."

Here's a clue: her name has been mentioned more than once in this story.

I came across Fuxi and **** while doing research on Chinese Mythology, and they became the inspiration for my fiction's backstory!

R&R, thank you!