Hi,

Just a quick notice to say I will be switching POV's in this chapter,

Hope you enjoy!

The next morning the warriors were awoken by a light tap on the shoulder from Yin's staff and they groaned as they sat up, their bodies aching from the hard-concrete floor they'd been lying on.

"Here are our weapons for the fight," Yin announced as soon as everyone had awoken and were sitting around her.

In the centre of the circle they'd made, she laid out two Bo staff's, two pairs of iron Nunchucks, and a silver sword complete with a black leather sheaf and silver hilt.

"Is that all there is?" Tigress groaned unappreciatively.

"Yes, as soon as I heard Susan yell, I grabbed a selection from the weaponry room, but the room was caving in further with every minute it took me to gather them so I had to leave quite a few behind."

"It's ok," sighed Viper, smiling gratefully at the spirit. "Po and Monkey, you take the Bo staff's, Tigress and Susan take the Nunchucks and Yin the sword."

"What about you two?" questioned Monkey kindly, indicating her and Crane.

Crane fluttered his wings at the tips of his feathers to indicate his ability to fly and Viper hissed loudly and showed her gleaming fangs.

"I think we're pretty much sorted." Viper managed a small smile.

"And Mantis?"

"Mantis can inflict plenty of pain himself, I assure you he won't need a weapon." Master Shifu cut in, shivering slightly as he remembered Mantis "Healing" him while Tigress found the other warriors, many years previously.

"Sorted then." Yin picked up the Sword inside its sheaf and tied the leather belt around herself, the others all grabbing their own allocated weapons too. "We haven't got a moment to lose."

"Ok, what exactly is our plan when we get behind the army?" Monkey asked curiously.

"I don't think we have much of one," Viper answered, biting her lip.

"Yay, another, our only plan is not to die adventure, how lovely." Crane groaned, rolling his eyes.

"Come on," Spirit Yin urged. "Aha," she twisted a silver handle, one that blended so well with the wall no one else realised it was there, and a rectangular door swung open, revealing an earthy passage.

She crouched down and begin crawling through the passage on her hands and knees, her long robe trailing in the mud behind her.

Master Shifu glanced towards the other warriors before nodding to himself and crouching down, crawling down the passage after Yin.

"Ladies first?" Crane whimpered, gesturing towards the three females in the room who all glared at him then crawled in after Master Shifu.

"Crane go next, and then Mantis, I'll go last." Decided Monkey.

"Eh I'll just go; old bird brain here will take forever." Mantis countered and hopped in after the others, leaving Monkey and Crane alone in the basement.

"You go, I'll follow in a minute," Crane offered, squinting his face and adverting his gaze whenever he looked at the passage.

"Ok, but we haven't really got a minute, be quick." Monkey crouched down and crawled after the others who were already far ahead.

Crane's POV

I twitched my beak again and tried to steady my breathing.

It's just a passage under the ground it's fine, it's fine.

I told myself, but of course it wasn't.

The passage was still there, dark and earthy.

I needed to follow the others; they were probably all waiting for me.

Definitely all waiting for me.

But I couldn't bring myself to step forward, as soon as I did my body started shaking all over and I nearly fell.

My eyes were glistening now too, sparking with tears.

Don't cry, don't cry!

I told myself sternly but I felt completely stuck, I couldn't go in the passage, but I couldn't stay here either, they need me.

Third POV

"So, these creatures, we know you beat the ghost-snakes by hitting them in the fangs, everywhere else any punches or kicks will just go straight through them, they can attack us, but we can't attack them unless it's in the fangs and if they bite us, we're going to fade forever. They are also an army of six hundred, we're an army of eight." Viper acknowledged as they crawled through the tunnel. "Really brings the word unfair to a whole new level doesn't it?"

"You can say that again." Sighed Susan grumpily.

"Hang on." Monkey stopped and twisted around, his sudden shout drawing everyone's attention. "Where's Crane?"

"I thought he climbed in after you?" Tigress grunted, growling as her dressing gown caught on another piece of rock.

"No, he's not behind me."

"His fear! We forgot he hates confined spaces!" Viper shrieked suddenly.

"He should get over it then, we need to save China!" Mantis barked.

"No, it's ok, An Ling isn't going anywhere, you can go back to your friend." Yin conceded, peering through the darkness ahead. "We'll carry on ahead and you can just follow the tunnel when you come."

"See you in a minute!" Viper cried, already miles behind them.

"He seriously couldn't get over it? Honestly." Mantis continued, once they were out of earshot of Viper.

"Mantis, fears are difficult things to get over, and more often then not, they often coincide with a detrimental memory." Master Shifu debated, "Whether Crane's a warrior or not, if he's saving China or not, he still has emotions."

Viper's POV

I slunk down the tunnel as quickly as I could, finally falling out into the dark basement, though light in comparison with the tunnel.

Crane was standing by the tunnel's entrance, his feathers wet with sweat and his legs and beak twitching nervously.

I don't even think he noticed me come in, his eyes were too firmly fixed on the tunnel.

"Crane,"

He almost jumped a foot in the air when I said his name.

"Viper," his previously fixed posture relaxed slightly and his breathing quietened. "I can't do it."

"Of course you can," I encouraged. I decided the best way to face this issue was tactfully kindly. If I got mad at him or forced him it would make everything a lot harder.

I knew Crane too well to know that the best way to get Crane to do something, is through encouragement and kindness.

"I…. I…can't, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," he apologised, stuttering slightly, which led me to noticing his puffy eyes.

The sight of his gorgeous eyes so red and puffy, showing how anxious and sad he really was broke my heart, and I wanted nothing more but to tell him he didn't have to go in, but I couldn't do that. Apart from needing to meet the others, he needed to face his fear.

"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault." I slipped my tail around his wing and began slowly edging towards the tunnel's entrance, hoping that if I striked up a conversation he might not notice the tunnel drawing closer and closer. "Do you know what my fears are?"

"No, I know Mantis's though." He answered chuckling slightly which I took as a great improvement from crying.

I crawled into the tunnel and surprisingly, after only a minute of hesitation and deep breaths, he bent down and followed me in.

"Oh really? What are they?"

We were nearly completely submerged in the tunnel now, but I continued to chat, it was better to keep him distracted even though we were already in.

"I shouldn't say,"

"Oh go on! He's not here!"

"Tall buildings." He answered simply and we both chuckled a little.

"How funny,"

We stopped talking and for a minute I thought everything was fine and then Crane stopped suddenly, as if just realising we were deep in the tunnel.

His breathing quickened and his wing gripped my tail tightly.

"We need to go back, we need to go back, we need to go back!" he shrieked, gasping as his chest heaved with an insufferable amount of air.

"It's ok, it's ok!" I tell him, stroking his wing with my tail and slowly pulling him down the tunnel.

"No, Viper I really want to go back." His voice quietened; it wasn't so much a shriek but a whimper now.

"No, it's ok." I continued to stroke his wing, my heart burned as I led him further down the tunnel, as he gripped my tail harder, but I knew I needed to keep going. "We're almost there, keep going."

"No, Viper please."

I felt my whole heart break when I heard that and when I turned around to see him cowering, his skinny legs shaking like mad.

"We can do it, come on." I wrapped my tail more firmly around his wing and began slithering faster and faster. The sooner we get out of here the better, even though there was still a war to come, I felt it really couldn't get any worse than this.

I was leading Crane, the animal I loved most in the world, down his own personal nightmare tunnel.

But then I saw something, the gorgeous, saviour light of the end of the tunnel.

"Look it's there, we're so nearly there, we can do it!"

My words of encouragement seemed to work magic, or maybe it was just Crane yearning t get out of the tunnel as quickly as he could, but he bolted towards that light.

And at last we toppled through another door, this time a round and woodlice-chewed one, into another large underground room, this one was grey and dimly lit too, but at least you could stand up in it.

G'day,

I would continue but this is getting too long already so I'll stop there for this chapter.

I know this chapter was meant to be the start of the action, but I started writing this scene and this whole idea with Crane and Viper just popped into my head.

I'm sorry if it's a little bit angsty, but I really wanted you as a reader to really feel what Crane was feeling.

I actually have a phobia of lifts and small spaces too, so I knew how Crane would act in this situation, the heavy breathing, the begging.

It also gave me a chance to give you a heap of Criper content since I feel like there hasn't been a heap of that in this fic and that is what I'm known for, my Criper or Vipane fic's as my name suggests.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter,

Ciao,

xx