Hello there!

Okay, so I've made up my mind that I'll just try to write two stories at once. I can't hold off my excitement for this idea anymore!

So, the thought came to me that if Shen had already invented the canon, then guns couldn't be too far away. And, eventually, guns would become so common that kung-fu would eventually become obsolete, just like swords and bows became obsolete to guns in real life. So, the next thought that followed was, what if Po and the Five had to fight someone with a gun? I thought it would be very interesting to take a character with virtually zero fighting skills and make him a deadly enemy. Sure, it would be similar to Shen and his cannons, but much easier to carry around and target one person.

Now, if you've read the prologue (which I assume you've done), then you probably know that a few characters are going to die. But that's not the end of the story, even though I did originally plan for it to end that way. I decided that ending the story that way would waste another idea: what if Po or Tigress died in combat? How would the survivor react? What if the survivor decided to take their pain and rage and use it to cleanse the Valley of all crime and ensure peace no matter the cost? They both certainly have the ability to do it. Now, that idea has been used before, but I guess all stories have been inspired from other stories. And that, my friends, is how this story is going to tie together two different plotlines into one.

Now, my dear readers, I believe I owe you an apology. I've been rereading my story The Truth Shall Set You Free, annnnnd… it has some issues, to say the least. As you know, I'm an amateur writer. I try to look for areas of improvement, so I recently read through that story with a more critical eye before starting this one. The major issue is the shortness of the chapters. The intention was for the scenes to be more digestible for the reader, but I now know I sacrifice way too much for that. Without description, without too many thoughts, the chapters feel dry. It's not like I need to create additional scenes, I just need to make the scenes bigger. I mean, character development is practically non-existent in the story. Not for Tigress, the main character, or any of the other characters, as well. Now, I'm kind of a perfectionist, but you probably can't tell from that story. Rereading it made me realize that I could do better. I will do better, and that starts with the chapter you're about to read.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to Part 1 of The Empress. The fact is… I'm probably more excited than you are. And I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

This isn't an AU, it takes place after KFP 3, and I don't own Kung Fu Panda (whew).

On. With. The. Show!

The streets in the Valley of Peace were busy early in the morning. There were merchants calling out for customers from their stalls, kids running all around the place, and people walking to where they needed to be. It was a sunny day without any clouds in the sky, and the temperature was lovely, complemented with a light breeze that blew through the streets.

There was, however, one person of interest. A goat. His fur was a pale white color, with two horns curling around his head that matched the color of his fur. He was skinny for a goat, with a thin face that always had the look of someone who did a lot of thinking. His eyes darted around all over the place, taking in everything and everyone. If you had asked anyone in the streets who he was, they would have been unable to help. No one knew his name. Many had seen him before, but had never actually spoken with him. He wasn't one to regularly go out and interact with the world. He lived in two places. The first was a very dreary house. The second was at his job, where he was the only employee other than his boss. In fact, that was exactly the place that he was on his way to. Every morning, he walked to work, and every evening, he walked back home so he could eat, sleep, and repeat the process.

After walking for a few more minutes, the goat turned to his side and faced a bamboo door by the right side of the street. On the outside of this building, which was attached to many more shops on the sides, was a simple wall covered with a fresh coat of red paint, suggesting that the owner really cared about the looks of his business. There was a sign on the top of the building, which simply read "Pharmacy."

The goat reached into his simple black cloth robe, pulled out a key, unlocked the door, and entered the shop, which had an inside that matched its outside. At the moment, however, there was only the light coming from the door. The goat lit a match from the counter and lit the many candles inside. With this new light, the goat blinked for a few seconds. Once his eyes were adjusted, he looked around. It was absolutely spotless. The shop itself wasn't very big; it was only a single room, with just enough room for shelves to line the walls, full of fresh plants and mushrooms that could be used to cure all sorts of illnesses. Near the door was a counter, where our goat went to stand behind, pulling out papers and writing utensils out of the drawers below to get ready for the day. He adjusted the vase on the counter, the only piece of decoration in the small shop, so it wasn't in his way. As usual, he was earlier than his boss, a middle aged ram named Qian. Customers only came in occasionally, so the goat set out to do his daily duties.

The first thing he did was browse through the shelves of medicinal plants and fungi. On the shelves, species were bundled together with some cord with a small name tag underneath. The goat grabbed bundles one by one, brought them up to his nose, and took in deep breaths. If they started to smell like they were getting old, then he threw them away. If not, then they got to live out one more day on the shelf until the process was repeated the next morning. The only exception was a particular fungus that cured toothaches. The goat liked the flavor of them, so, if they were old, he would just stuff those in his robe and take a few bites when Qian wasn't looking. After that, though, he needed to chew on some mint, as the fungus didn't help his breath any. After that was complete, he set about cleaning the inside of the shop. The goats' daily sweeping and dusting, as well as his weekly scrubbing of the floors and walls was what kept the place so spotless. At one point, the door opened, and a customer walked in, which he greeted, took his order for some plants that relieved stomach pain, which he quickly found on the shelves, and took his money.

In the middle of some more mundane tasks, the door flew open and hit the back wall with a crack! The goat lazily rolled his eyes over to the open door. The first thing to enter was a box filled with new medicinal plants, herbs, and fungi. Then, the ram carrying the box in front of him entered behind it.

"Morning, Shao!" Qian said in a brighter voice than usual. The ram didn't even bother to look at him, instead walking forward and placing the large box on the counter with a grunt. Qian had dark brown fur, with horns of his own that circled around the sides of his head. He had a bulging stomach, a testament to his plentiful supply of money. Shao, for that was the goat's name, began silently picking through the new shipment of medicinal plants and started to put them on their respective shelves. While he did that, Qian scoffed behind him.

"Well, I see you're cheery today."

"I'm like this every day, Qian," was the simple and bland response. Qian chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess you are. But, today, I have a little surprise for you."

"Oh?" Shao only wanted one surprise. His payment. He just hoped his little "surprise" didn't involve anything associated with the "side business" of Qian. He didn't really want to get involved with that. Sure, he cleaned all the items down in what Qian called his "laboratory," which was a fancy way of saying "basement," but he never actually bought anything from there. Almost as if to bring up that point, someone walked in the front door. A smaller sized rhino. He looked like he hadn't bathed in about five years and he had a smell to back it up. He wore some torn cloth pants, a simple black belt, and a vest that was more suitable for a bunny. He had a certain look about him that suggested he wasn't there for medicine. As soon as Qian glanced in his direction, his back straightened and his face assumed a furious look.

"What the hell do you think you're doing! Get your fat ass out of here! Go through the back!" The ram hurried forward, pushing the rhino out. The rhino, while small for his species, was still considerably bigger than Qian. But the ram's aggression caught him off guard, so there was only a look of confusion on his face as he was hurried out the door. Shao could only look on with embarrassment. Sure, he knew what he was really there for, as he had come just last week, but still, you had to walk a long way around the village streets to reach the back entrance. But, he knew that Qian didn't want to ruin the image of his shop with dirty-looking customers.

Shao had onced brought up that point to his boss, but, after getting smacked with the back of the ram's hoof and told that he should leave the running of the business to him, he hadn't brought it up again. After all, Shao thought, people like that is where most of the money comes from. They didn't really get too many customers for their medicine. This shop was really just a front for the "side business," which was actually what generated money. Shao earned a "bonus" payment for his silence.

"Actually," thought the goat. "If the lazy slobs that call themselves the local guard actually had eyes, they might wonder how a pharmacist owns such a nice house out by the lake." Meanwhile, Qian was rolling his eyes at the small incident that had taken place.

"The nerve of these people, you know? I mean, is it really so hard to go through the back?" He plopped down on a stool by the corner and sighed. "What do I got to do to get it through their thick heads?" He knew that Shao was listening, even if he wasn't looking at him or responding. After a few minutes, the back door opened up, and the less-than-happy rhino walked in.

"Ah," started Qian. "That's better. Now, what can I do for you?" By now, his anger had melted into a customer-ready smile.

After a pause of a few seconds, the rhino slowly answered, "I just wanna see what kinda stuff you got. My friends told me I could bag some goods 'ere."

Qian jumped up from his stool and clapped his front hooves, always glad to receive flattery. "Well, your friends are right! Come on, I'll take you down to the back and I'll show you some of my newest items." He tried his best to put his arm around the rhino's shoulder, but with their height difference, it was difficult. He started to lead the rhino to a second door in the back of the shop. Before they opened the door, Qian looked back at Shao and winked. Shao just blinked a few times, until he realized he must be referencing the "surprise" he had for him. Shao was starting to get disappointed, as he began to think that it wasn't an advance on his payment for the week.

The ram opened the door and led the rhino down a set of stairs, closing the door behind them. Meanwhile, Shao stood at the counter, waiting for new customers, as he had completed the basic chores for the day already.

A few minutes later, while Shao was whistling and tapping his hooves on the counter, the front door opened and a male lion walked in. This customer was not like the last; he actually seemed to be a legitimate customer. Immediately, Shao stiffened up.

"Morning," the lion politely greeted. Shao did not respond. The lion decided to ignore his rude reaction and asked for something cured headaches. Shao quickly walked across the shop, picked out the right plant, and tossed it on top of the counter. He then held out his hoof and bluntly said,

"Five coins." The lion was a little taken aback by Shao's rudeness, but he didn't want to get involved in anything, so he handed him the money, took his goods, and left. Shao suspiciously eyed him until he closed the door on his way out.

After a few more minutes, Qian and the rhino came back from the laboratory/ basement. The rhino, now in a much better mood, came out of the door with a large paper bag in his hand. Who knew what use the items in the bag would be put to? Shao didn't really like to dwell on that thought. It brought back bad memories. Very bad memories.

After Qian had waved him off of the back door again, he came back to sit in his usual stool by the corner. He folded his arms across his chest, leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes.

"So, we get any customers while I was down there?" he asked.

"Nope," was the simple reply. Unfortunately for Shao, Qian had a sharp eye for his possessions.

"Then what happened to my headache herbs?" Shao briefly wondered how he knew about that, as his eyes were still closed. He realized he must have seen the absence of the plants when he came back up the stairs. Before Shao could respond, Qian suddenly burst out,

"Oh, gods, don't tell me it was a predator?" Qian finally leaned his head forward and opened his eyes. The expression on Shao's face gave away the answer to his question.

"Boy!" he started in a demeaning tone. Even though Shao was in his thirties, Qian was in his forties, so he considered every male younger than him a "boy." "What have I told you about your little prejudices!?"

Shao gave a sigh and repeated a phrase that he was taught long ago by the ram, and had repeated many times. He was sure he was destined to repeat it many more times.

"I can live my life the way I want on my own time, but not on your time."

"That's right! And you best not soon forget that! Your prejudices aren't going to cost me my money, you got that!? I can have you out of here like that!" He clapped his hooves at the word "that." "You can go serve as a waiter in that noodle place you and I like instead!"

Throughout the ram's rant, Shao stayed silent. Qian had threatened him with that many times over the six years he had worked there. But Shao was still employed, and he knew that he just had to wait for Qian to cool down. Eventually, he did, and got back to closing his eyes and leaning his back against the wall. After a few seconds of silence that Shao deeply enjoyed, Qian's eyes snapped open and his lips twisted into a strange smile.

"Oh! That reminds me. Your surprise. I guess this is a good a time as any." With that, Qian got off of his stool and headed to the basement door, gesturing for Shao to follow him.

"What about the customers?" Shao asked.

"They can wait," came the reply as the goat was halfway down the stairs. Sighing, Shao walked over to the door and closed it behind him. In front of him was an old set of wooden stairs, with unpainted walls that were way too close to each other for the goat's comfort. Being a little claustrophobic, Shao walked down the stairs with his shoulders parallel to each of the walls to make himself as small as possible. He made sure to skip over the next-to-last step, as he knew his entire leg would sink right through it. When he reached the bottom, there was a door made of rotting wood which creaked open noisily.

Shao closed the door behind him and adjusted his eyes to the much darker room. Only three candles had been lit earlier by Qian so the rhino could see around. Shao looked around the basement.

The room was much bigger than the shop upstairs. It was a large rectangular room. There was a large rectangular table in the middle of the room, with two more tables pushed against each long side of the room. Together, there were two walkways, one in between the gaps of the three tables. On the table on the middle were all sorts of devices and gadgets. From wrist-mounted grappling hooks, to gloves that had retractable claws about a foot long, to smoke bombs, to boots that made the wearer's footsteps completely silent, there was any device of combat you could think of. And this is where the money really came from. Qian was a tinkerer, and loved to make new inventions. Specifically, weapons. Even more specifically, weapons he could sell to thieves, bandits, and other criminals who would keep coming back for more. He had been running his "side business" for a few years now, but only recently had it started to become popular among the local bandit clan. Now, the business was really booming, and Qian grew richer and happier. Provided that they came in the back door, of course.

But the side tables were where Qian spent most of his time. On them laid unfinished products, such as goods to restock his selection, but also a few new experiments of the ram. Qian felt as if he needed to release a new product every few weeks or so to keep his customers interested.

While Shao had been looking around, Qian had walked to the end of the table on the right, where a white cloth was covering something. Qian motioned for Shao to come over to him. Shao waked past the two tables, stopping at the ram's side. Qian took a deep breath, and Shao rolled his eyes, as he knew that Qian wanted to build the suspense for what his "surprise" was, which was undoubtedly underneath the cloth.

"Do you know what all of my… tools have in common, Shao?" he asked with a tone that a teacher might when going through a math problem with their young students.

"They're all instruments of warfare?" was the tongue-in-cheek response.

Qian chuckled. "Well… yeah, I guess so. But what else do they all have in common?" Shao shrugged, getting tired of his little games.

"Well, let me back up. Do you know who makes me my money?"

"Probably the people who buy your stuff, I imagine." Qian put his hoof on Shao's shoulder.

"Wrong. The Furious Five makes me my money." Shao flinched at the name, as the name reminded him of someone. Someone that had once kept him sleepless as a small child.

"Aren't there six of them?" was Shao's sarcastic response.

"Well, sure, but "The Furious Six" doesn't have the same ring to it. I mean, "The Furious Five," that really pops. But that's not the point. The point is, without them, I'd go broke."

At this point, Qian walked over to the table in the middle, reached for a retractable claw gauntlet, and held it up to display.

"Now, I want you to imagine yourself as a bandit. You're in this crazy rush on this unsuspecting village, stealing as much as you can as fast as you can, when, all of a sudden, you hear something land behind you. You turn around, and the Dragon Warrior himself is facing you. But you're not unarmed, you're sporting one of these." He held up the weapon. "What do you do?"

Shao didn't have to think about that question for long. "Well, I'd run away as fast as I could back to where I lived. Then I would just move to another country."

Qian put down the glove with a groan, frustrated that Shao wasn't giving the right responses to let his little lesson flow properly. "No, what I mean is: what does the bandit do?"

"Those idiots?" Shao asked. "They're crazy enough to take a swing at him."

Happy with that response, Qian replied, "Exactly! Now, the Five don't have the balls to just slaughter the pieces of filth where they stand like they should, so they arrest all of the unconscious ones. But what about all the ones that flee? They come back here! Again, and again, and again. I mean, what would I do if the Five died? The bandits would conquer the valley, and I'd have no more customers! Who needs more weapons when you've defeated everybody?"

"So that's why I make flashy and ridiculous weapons like this! Something that catches the attention of their tiny brains and makes them give me money! But do they actually work? No! They're designed to make my customers come back. Again, and again, and again." The ram chuckled. "I mean, if they would offer me some real money, I'd whip up something with real power!"

By now, Shao was getting tired of listening to Qian rant. The basement was cold and damp, and he wanted to get back upstairs where the air wasn't so muggy. He held out one hoof to stop Qian.

"So… what exactly was the point of bringing me down here?"

That strange smile from before reappeared on the ram's face. "I whipped up something with some real power!" He walked back over to the cloth, but didn't reach for it.

"You wouldn't happen to remember a few years ago, when there was that cannon craze with that psycho peacock over in Gongmen? And how the Five went and stopped him?"

"Yeah, I remember that day. I was standing by the counter while you explained to me all about it, from Master Thundering Rhino's death, to Masters Ox and Croc's imprisonment, and all the other little details. I think you then went into a brief history of the lineage of the title of emperor of the city."

The ram happily nodded. "Yeah, good times. Well, you remember that the black powder that powered the cannons became outlawed, right?" Shao nodded. "Well, I recently got a hold of some of that stuff recently. Like… a lot of it."

Shao straightened up and looked back at the door as if he were afraid someone might hear. Satisfied that no one was listening, he leaned back towards Qian, interested for the first time since the conversation had started.

"What!? How!?"

Qian chuckled again. "Ignorance is bliss, my friend. Don't forget that. Don't burden yourself with unnecessary details," the ram answered suspiciously. Shao still had a flabbergasted look on his face, so Qian continued.

"Well, you know I've always wanted to get my hands on the stuff. And now I finally have." Qian sat down on one of the many stools by the long table and put his front hooves together thoughtfully.

"Now, I was thinking of a way to apply this stuff to my own work. Now, obviously, I make things on a much smaller scale. I was able to find two uses for it. The first one was simple. I simply put a handful of the stuff in a small round container. If the container hits something with enough force, the metal casing will make a spark that'll make the whole thing explode with enough force to blow ten people straight to the Spirit Realm!" The ram's eyes got wide and his voice excited as he talked about his work.

"But the second invention is truly my masterpiece." With some dramatic flair, he put his hoof on the cloth and quickly tore it away. Shao looked down where the cloth had been.

Resting on the table was a long, cylindrical wooden object a little smaller than the length of his arm. One end of it curved down and had a metal piece stick out of the bottom. On the other end, it was empty. On top of the end with the curved part was a movable slide. Overall, it didn't strike Shao was very impressive.

"Um… what is it?"

The ram looked offended. "What!? I show you my masterpiece and that's all you can say!? Well, I'll tell you what it is! This, my boy, is guaranteed death!" After that, he went silent and let that sink in.

"Um… okay. What does it do?"

The ram rolled his eyes. "Okay, I was just talking about Shen's cannons, right?" The goat nodded. "Well, this is a miniature cannon."

Shao had to stop himself from laughing. "What? A miniature cannon? Why would anyone want that? I don't think any bandit has the desire to blow up a toy building."

Getting frustrated, the ram decided it was time for a little more action and a little less conversation. He picked up the object by the curved end and pointed the other end towards the wall. Pulling back the metal piece with his hoof, the object went

BAM!

After Shao pulled his hooves out of his ears, opened his eyes, and got out of his crouching position, he looked back at Qian, half expecting his top half to be gone. But the ram was still there, looking down at Shao with a smug grin. A small amount of smoke was coming from the object. Shao couldn't see anything different than before.

"So… it makes a lot of noise. Did it do anything else?"

The ram put his hand on the goat's shoulder once again and led him towards the wall. When they came close enough, the ram pointed to a spot on the wall. Shao looked, and he saw a hole about an inch across right in the wall that definitely wasn't there before.

Convinced, Shao looked at Qian with wide eyes. Qian was still smiling. "You see?" he asked. A shocked nod was the response.

"Well, I'm not selling it."

Shao blinked a few times as he tried to comprehend that sentence. Qian lived for money, and refusing to sell something like this was like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and then turning around and going home without it.

"What! Why not!? You can make a fortune selling these!"

"Ah, that's where you're wrong. I'd sell only a few of them, and the Five would be dead. Then I'd go bankrupt. Plus, could you imagine what would happen if this got out there? Everyone would be tripping on their own paws or hooves, or whatever they have, to make one of these! Then everyone would have one! Could you imagine entire armies, not having swords and bows, but these!? It would be total chaos! So, that's why I have to keep this a secret, you see."

Shao still thought it was counter-intuitive, but he supposed it made sense. "Okay, so what are you going to do with it?"

"Well, I thought, for all the hard work you've done here, and for your silence, I might give you a little gift. Take it. It's yours." He looked serious enough when he said it.

Shao laughed right in his face. "Okay, that was a good one, but what are you really going to do with it?"

Qian almost looked confused. "I'm giving it to you."

It took a few seconds to realize that Qian wasn't joking. "You're kidding, right?"

The ram pointed his hoof at his face. "Does this look like the face of a ram that's kidding?"

Shao was speechless for a few seconds. Why would he want this thing for? He could only get in some serious trouble if someone found out he had the coveted black powder.

"Are you crazy, Qian!? What the hell would I need this for!?"

Qian's response was a quick one. "You can use it to accomplish the goals I know you have."

Behind his fur, Shao turned pale. "Oh come on! You know that's-" Qian interrupted him.

"-just talk?" he finished. "Oh, so you mean that you don't have what it takes to make the world a better place, even if it might mess up a few things in the process?"

Shao was immediately on the defensive. "I can't really do something like that! Get one of those bandits to do it!"

"Those bandits would betray me and use it for their own purposes. Then, it would be discovered. But you, I can trust you. Just use it for what you need, then bring it right back."

"But what about your money? If I actually did it, then-"

"Pfff. The Furious Five can still kick some ass without one or two members. Removing one out of the picture won't cause any harm."

"Yeah, but-"

"Hey, you said it yourself." The ram's voice started to raise in volume. "You said she was a threat to them up at the Jade Palace! You've said it many times. You said you saw it with your own eyes!"

Gong! Gong! Gong!

The ringing of the attack bell brought employee and employer back out of their discussion.

Qian put the object back on the table and threw the cloth back over it.

"Well, I'll give you time to decide," he said in a casual tone. "Right now, it's probably a good idea to just stay down here, as it seems like we're under attack, but I think the Five can handle it just fine. They always do."

Shao briefly wondered if they would be as effective without their feline leader.

The small rhino charged through the eastern side of the Valley of Peace with his fellow bandits. On his belt, he had three smoke bombs, but he was most excited about his new glove. With a press of a button, claws at least a foot long shot out of them.

The streets were like any other in the Valley. Lining the sides were shops currently being raided as fast as possible. Wolves, boars, rhinos, leopards, lions, crocodiles, and all sorts of large animals were involved. The rush was chaotic, as there were screaming civilians desperately, and unsuccessfully, trying to run away. Shops were being torn through and ransacked for any valuables, and the few guards that had come to stop them were long since unconscious on the ground.

The rhino crashed right through a door into a jewelry shop. He used his long arm to sweep as many jewels as he could into a large brown sack he carried. When he came out, he saw most of his fellow bandits rushing out of shops and back into the streets. They were almost finished, and they had to move quickly if they were going to escape-

Whoosh!

All of the bandits turned to look, and an unwelcome sight was before them.

The Furious Five. And they didn't look like they had come to party with them. Well, except for the Dragon Warrior, who always had that goofy grin on his face as he always did before a fight.

There was a moment of silence, until the Dragon Warrior shouted out,

"All right! Who's ready for a butt-kicking!?"

Yeah, I got 1,000 more words then the average chapter in my other story! (And I am talking about words in the story without author's notes.) Let's go!

By the way, I believe (and I believe Footrod Flats already brought up this point in an ending note somewhere in Eye of the Tiger (a great story; seriously, check it out)) there is a serious lack of fights of Po and the Five together. There's only two in the whole movie series (and one in the holiday special), the one at the beginning of the second movie against the wolves and one at the end of the second movie against Shen's ships. There needs to be more of that. Sadly, Po had to spend too much time in a village of cuddly and cute animals (that includes you, Return of the Jedi, and, fun fact, the three KFP movies have a lot of parallels to the original trilogy of Star Wars. But that's a topic for another time.) for that to be a thing during the third movie. But, I guess each of the three movies have been about specific relationships. The first movie being about Po and Shifu, the second being about Po and Tigress, and the third being about Po and Li Shan, so I guess there wasn't much time for the Five during the third movie. Which is a terrible shame, as the Five are underutilized in both the first and third movies.

Whoa, I just reread this and realized how long it was! While I could go on and on for a long time about these movies, and why the second is the best in my opinion (although the first one is pretty close. Sorry, but the third one falls short in several places, despite still being a good movie), you probably don't really care, so I'll shut up now. But if you do find that topic interesting, then feel free to PM me and we can share our views on the movies! Or anything else, for that matter!

Keep being awesome!