"And this is the moment where he had that choice, really, of finding out his parents loved him and then, you know, he could say, "Oh, it was all a misunderstanding. I guess I did all this for nothing. Maybe I could be redeemed." But I think it just shows how fare gone he is that he would rather continue doing something he knows is wrong. Because he can't admit that it was all him. You know, he's been blaming everyone else for a long time. If he massacred all those pandas by accident. You gotta justify your evil actions. Just stick with the plan. And that last shot where he's left, rimmed by that red light, all alone, is really his choice. (…) And you kind of know just how deep all this is to him, in a bad way. He's not gonna recover very easy from what he's done." (DVD Audio commentary by movie makers – Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Melissa Cobb, Raymond Zibach, Rodolphe Guenoden about the final scene between Lord Shen and Soothsayer)
3. Broken Souls
A few days passed. Liang did his best to question the villagers as inconspicuous as possible. He also heard that the other two kung fu masters, Master Ox and Master Croc, had been thrown into the dungeon and that Shen was preparing a fleet, which worried the lord very much. On the one hand, he couldn't bear the thought of harming his son, but neither could he allow himself to subjugate China by force. Sometimes it pained him that he had a son like him. He had never imagined his fatherhood would end like this before his wedding to Ai.
When he strolled through the village, as he did every day, and, apparently by chance, he passed some people again, he mostly learned nothing new. But this day he was surprised. He was just passing the village blacksmith, an old ramgoat, who was talking to a gander and a pig.
"Good morning," Liang greeted politely.
The three animals also nodded to the peacock.
"Good morning, Makkuro," the village blacksmith replied and hit a hot piece of iron a few times before dipping it into a bucket of cold water with a loud hissing sound.
"You seem excited," Makkuro or Liang said in an insignificant undertone. "Anything new?"
"Well," the pig began hesitantly. "Something like that, or almost at least."
Liang raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Almost why?"
"Well, today a sheep told me, or rather he claimed, that it saw a panda that told him that he wants to overthrow Shen."
The lord pricked up his ears. "A panda? But... there are no pandas..."
He swallowed. There were no pandas anymore. At least not here. But the pig insisted on what he said.
"Maybe, but the sheep said it that way. He even said, that the panda should be a kung fu fighter. Maybe we'll be lucky and they really will stop Shen and drive him out of town. They would have been particularly happy to hear that the two kung fu masters are still alive and in the dungeon. Maybe they have already hatched a plan."
The lord's spine ran freezing cold. He said goodbye quickly and ran towards his wife's house. Inside, his wife expected him.
"Liang, anything new?" she asked immediately.
The green, formerly blue peacock looked at his wife. She had dark circles under her eyes. The mother had slept very poorly for the past few nights. She could barely close an eye and nightmares kept her awake at night. Liang got a bad feeling. She was afraid. Just like him. The uncertainty overwhelmed both of them, even if neither wanted to admit it to the other.
"No, there is nothing new," he lied.
That night, Liang slept extremely restlessly. He hadn't told his wife about his suspicions with the panda and that he might be connected to the black and white warrior. She worried enough already, but he knew he couldn't keep it from her forever. If it was really true that this was the warrior in black and white, then the odds were high that Shen's venture might fail. And then... What would happen then? This question kept the peacock awake all evening hours and just wouldn't let go of him.
Suddenly, the peacock started up. In the distance, several dull thuds could be heard as if from bullets that didn't want to stop.
"What's going on?" Ai mumbled, still sleepy. She had been woken up by the strange bang. Over and over again a crash broke through the air. Except all of a sudden, a terrible rumble shook the ground like a light earthquake and ended in an ominous thunder.
Both parents left their bed in a hurry and rushed outside. Ai's finger feathers clutched Liang's shirt in fear. The tremor had stopped and there was silence.
"What was that?" the peahen breathed.
Liang's gaze wandered towards the city. "It came from Gongmen City."
For a moment, neither dared breathe. Finally, they looked at each other. Then, as if on command, they ran through the forest, which was a shortcut to a hill from which one you could see the city. Both had no problem finding their way in the dark. They had lived in this area long enough to know every bush and tree twig on the ground.
When they finally reached the hill, breathless, they stopped dead. The city lay before them, as always. But something was missing.
"Where... where is the palace?" Ai stammered, completely stunned. She narrowed her eyes several times just to make sure she wasn't wrong. But even Liang could only confirm that the tower, which had once proudly enthroned above Gongmen City, could no longer be seen. And only now, they noticed light smoke and swelling fire on the palace walls.
For several seconds, the two peafowls were speechless. Neither of them could explain what had happened at all. Where was the tower? Where was their former home? And most importantly, where was their son? Hadn't he been in the tower? Who brought the tower down? Was it an accident? Or did the black and white warrior...?
Liang shook his head in disbelief. "No, that couldn't be!" he thought desperately and Ai immediately expressed his fear.
"Oh please, tell me he wasn't in there!" she cried, completely distraught, and buried her face in his clothes.
Her husband hastily grabbed her head and looked into her eyes. "Take it easy, take it easy, I'll check it out. Have you heard? I will take a look. You stay here or go back to the village and wait there. I will be back soon."
Liang didn't run, he raced. The city came closer and closer. Again and again, he fluttered briefly through the air, then he hurried back on foot. He just wanted to know whether his son was still alive or not. He was constantly tormented by that question of whether all their effort and renunciation had been in vain and whether they had missed the point in time when their son had needed them most.
The peacock slunk and crept like a shadow through the streets of the city. Nobody was outside. All the townspeople had fled to their rooms, frightened by the riot around the town tower. But even if the streets had been full of animals, this would not have stopped the peacock father from reaching his son.
He arrived at the scene of the accident completely breathless. A terrible picture opened up before him. What had once been his home, lay in ruins.
But Liang didn't have time to mourn. Quickly, he hid in a corner when several wolves ran past him and ran howling through the alleys. The former lord watched them go. Maybe they led him to his son, he thought, and took up pursuit.
The wolves disappeared into the fireworks factory, which gave Liang some hope. Had his son managed to get to safety after all?
He looked around. Wolves were posted everywhere, but the walls and roof were free. For Liang, who knew everything from childhood, it was no problem to avoid the watchful wolves and slip through a gap. The peacock climbed along the beams of the factory building skillfully. He had always been good at sneaking up and camouflaging in his kung fu training. Nothing has changed about that until today.
In the factory, he immediately noticed that some things had changed and a lot had been rebuilt. Instead of producing fireworks as intended, the equipment was only used to melt metal that was operated by wolves and gorillas.
A horrible feeling crept through Liang's heart at the thought that everything was only there to wreak havoc on other animals. And worst of all, it was the work of his own son.
Suddenly, a voice made him sit up and take notice.
"You were wrong, Soothsayer. We sail to victory tonight. Your magic panda is clearly a fool."
Liang thought his heart would burst. That was Shen's voice. Relief crept through the lord. Nothing had happened to his son.
"Are you certain it is the panda who is a fool?"
The lord paused in surprise. That was the voice of the soothsayer. Was she still here?
"You just destroyed your ancestral home, Shen!" the goat rebuked.
The old peacock thought he had heard wrong. His son had destroyed his own palace?
Quickly, Liang followed the voices that came from a wooden crate. Careful and elegant as a sleek cat, he slipped over the wooden planks and peered down through a crack. In fact, his son was there. And next to him stood the soothsayer.
She hadn't changed through all the years.
Shen had just picked up his lance sword, dipped it once into a brazier and lit a map of China with the glowing metal tip, which shortly after went up in bright flames.
"A trivial sacrifice…," the white peacock sneered. "When all of China is my reward."
Shen spread his wings imperiously. But the soothsayer did not let Shen's enthusiasm infect her and just glared at him. "Then will you finally be satisfied? Will the subjugation of the whole world finally make you feel better?"
A little sobered, the white peacock lowered his wings and folded them under the robe. Then he passed the old goat, giving her a nasty look. "It's a start. I might also convert the basement into a dungeon."
With these words, he walked to the edge of the wooden balcony and looked down inside the factory.
The soothsayer just hung her head sadly. "The cup you choose to fill has no bottom."
She went over to Shen. Liang kept his eyes glued to her and watched how she stood next to the white lord and looked up at him pleadingly. "It is time to stop this madness."
A slight, hopeless smile slipped across the corner of Shen's beak. "Why on earth would I do that?"
"So your parents can rest in peace."
A shock went through Lord Liang.
"My parents ... hated me," Shen breathes dejectedly. "Do you understand?" He looked at the goat. For the first time, there was sadness on his face. "They wronged me… and I will make it right."
The goat shook her head wistfully and looked at him intently. "They loved you. They loved you so much that having to send you away killed them."
Seconds of silence crushed the air that weighed heavily on everyone present. And neither of them noticed the third person who had collapsed on the roof. Soothsayer kept her eyes on the white peacock. What was going on in the former prince's mind? She kept asking herself, hoping that he would open his heart to her. For a split second, Shen seemed to go deep inside. But then he raised his head resolutely.
"The dead exist in the past," he replied coldly. "And I must tend to the future."
The old woman thought a knife would pierce her soul. She had tried everything, but there was nothing to help the once innocent boy. No matter how hard she persuaded him, he refused to listen to her.
"Set the soothsayer free," the white peacock commanded flatly. "She's no use to me."
The old woman turned away sadly. "Goodbye, Shen. I wish you happiness."
Shen snorted disparagingly. "Happiness must be taken." Bitterness and hardness lay in his voice. "And I will take mine."
The goat moved away from him with heavy steps. A gorilla accompanied her. Shen was left alone and stared into the factory building.
It got quiet. Extremely quiet. Finally, the white lord turned away, took his lance sword and speared it into the wooden floor. For a while, he held the handle in the wing, then his finger feathers slipped off it. He had to stretch his legs. Just to come up with other thoughts. He was just about to go down the stairs when he heard a low creak. He set up his peacock comb and looked around. Someone was there. He could feel that clearly. But he wasn't afraid. Was it already these kung fu warriors? Something passed over him. Immediately, the white lord jumped up on the roof and looked around convulsively in all directions. But the place was empty.
Nobody noticed him. Nobody saw him. Neither the figure nor how he was feeling inside. Liang couldn't think, he was just functioning. He didn't know how, but at some point, he found himself on a meadow outside the city. When he was sure that no one was here but himself, he screamed and sank to the floor, followed closely by a loud weeping, as if he wanted to tear his soul apart.
He thought of nothing, only of the one sentence that pressed on his mind over and over again. The former ruler of Gongmen City would never have thought he would hear such words from his son.
"I hate you!" Shen had yelled at him before his leaving the city. But he hadn't expected that his son would live with the conviction that his mother and father would hate him. All these years this thought had dominated him without Liang's knowledge. Had he been such a bad father?
"My parents hated me."
... hated ...
Liang dug his finger feathers into the grass and pressed his forehead to the ground. He had no more strength to think about it. He just wanted to cry. There was no end to his tears. He was no longer in control of himself. He cried until he collapsed from exhaustion and passed out on the floor.
He sobbed softly for a while, then the clearing gradually fell silent. Light raindrops trickled down on the peacock. But Liang felt and heard nothing more. Not even the crack of a cannon that hurled a black and white figure through the air and disappeared into a river.