Hello there!

I must admit, I can start to smell the ending of Part 1, and I'm getting so excited that I can't stop thinking about it. I try to write other stuff, but my mind just drifts back here. So, I thought I should stop resisting and start writing…

So, what does this mean, you ask? Well, it means I'm about to go on an Empress marathon until the end of Part 1! Here we go!

On with the show!

Shao's House- Night

The door slowly creaked open, and the goat shuffled through. He had his small bag of clothes in one hoof. With the other, he closed the door behind him.

As might be expected, the house was dark.

Shao just stood there in the darkness for a few moments. He had been slowly working to get rid of that numb feeling. He had been forcing himself to try and think again, no matter how much his mind protested. But he still found it very difficult.

After a few more moments passed of standing in the dark, a voice whispered in Shao's head.

"Light the fireplace."

Yes, he thought. That was what he needed to do. Light the fireplace. After that, he could…

No, no. His mind wasn't capable of thinking that far ahead just yet. Better to focus on the fireplace first. So, he softly put the bag down, reached for his box of matches that he kept on the table, stuck one, and threw it into the fireplace. It ignited into life, bringing light to his gloomy house and making the shadows of his furnature dance on the walls. He turned to look at the walls.

How haunting were the dance of the shadows, he thought. How was it that he had never noticed them before? The chaotic order of their movement, the fine edges of every shape, the perfectly synchronized motions. It was a dance of the darkness and the light, going round and round each other. Circling, circling. Just waiting for the other side to lower its guard.

After spending much too long contemplating the nature of the dancing shadows, Shao took a seat in his chair by the fireplace, simply staring into the fire. In the back of his head, he knew that he needed to do something else, but it just wouldn't come to him. It was as if thinking about the fireplace had spent all of his mental energy. Now, he needed a break if he was going to think about how to get to bed.

After a few more moments of silent staring, Shao slowly reached into his robe, his hoof shaking. He pulled out the firearm and laid it across his lap. He stared down at it, unsure of what to make of it.

The gun, sparking some life into the barren wasteland that had become his brain, got him thinking.

"What am I going to do?" he wondered. He had asked himself that question a billion times since he had done the horrible deed, yet an answer had yet to present itself to him. It seemed as if he would have to search for an answer himself.

It was very simple, it seemed. He had two choices. Resume his normal life, or continue on his quest.

But which one was the right path?

As the weight of his past few days began to catch up with him, Shao's mind echoed that question over and over again until he fell asleep in his chair.

The fire burned on, and the shadows danced on into the night.

Qian's Pharmacy- Night

Duan Jing was the first to open the basement door. He ducked his head to fit through it, and his most trusted lieutenants followed. Qian was the second-to-last to enter, closely followed by one of the rhinos. The bandits lit the candles on the tables with their own, revealing a damp, musty room. There were three long tables, the ones on the ends full of half-finished projects, and the middle one with completed weapons, ready for selling.

"Hmm," Duan Jing noted. "Quaint."

Qian just stood there, shivering with fear. Duan Jing walked over to the ram. He put his claws on his knees and bent down so he was eye-level with the ram.

"Now, where's the black powder?" the croc asked, his voice growing unusually quiet. Qian didn't know it, but his lieutenants knew that he used that voice when he meant business.

But Qian tried one more time to make himself look innocent.

"I… I d-don't… don't know w-what you're t-talking about," Qian stammered.

The croc let his claw fly, smacking the ram's face with the back of his claw. The blow sent Qian spinning to the floor, where he quickly scrambled to get back up.

Before he could defend himself, the croc shouted at the top of his booming voice, "DON'T tell me you're innocent! Don't lie to me! It makes me very angry!" Tired of playing games, Duan Jing pulled out a dagger and held it against the ram's throat.

"Now show me where the powder is!" The croc tapped the ram's horns with the dagger. "Or I'll keep these as a souvenir!"

The ram, now on the verge of terror-induced tears, quickly waddled along the length of the middle table. After a short distance, he bent down and opened one of the drawers. The croc stomped over and ripped the whole drawer out of the side of the table and threw it on the counter.

Inside the small drawer was a tiny amount of powder. The grains were small and black.

Duan Jing's rage melted away and turned into joy at the sight of the illegal substance. He held it up for his fellow bandits to see.

"You see here, boys?" he asked them. Each of them wore similar twisted smiles.

"This here is our ticket. Our ticket to owning this town." The croc's self-satisfying thoughts turned into more realistic ones as he set the drawer back on the counter.

"But this isn't enough."

"B-but that's all I have," Qian replied, mentally preparing to get hit in the face again.

Instead of hitting him, Duan Jing replied, "And where did someone like you get it?"

The ram got defensive at the insult. "Hey, I had to pay a lot of money for only that little bit."

The croc nodded. "Okay," he said. He sat up on the table, folded his arms across his chest and turned towards the ram in a position that made him look bigger. "Let's cut the crap."

Qian gulped, not eager to see where the conversation would lead. But, on the other hand, he knew that his life was at stake.

"So, you made the weapon that killed Master Croc. Am I right?"

Qian quickly nodded.

"Good. Now you're being honest. So, tell me, what exactly does this little weapon do?"

The ram took a deep breath as he prepared to spill his secrets.

"Well, do you remember Lord Shen's cannons in Gongmen City those few years ago?"

The croc nodded.

"Well, it's really similar. It's like a miniature cannon." Qian paused as he prepared to explain the complex mechanisms of the machine to what he considered fools. "You put some of the black powder in it, put a small metal ball in it, and it spits out the metal ball at such a high speed that it kills anyone hit by it."

"So how is it any better than a hand-held crossbow?" the croc asked. "Seems the same to me."

Qian gestured to the small hole in the concrete wall that he had made in his demonstration to his employee.

"Can an arrow penetrate through concrete like that?" Qian asked. The croc's brow raised, impressed. "And," the ram added, "If it can go through concrete, I'm sure it can go right through a soldier's metal armor."

"Alright," the croc replied. "I'm sold."

Suddenly, the croc slapped the table, causing Qian to flinch. He hopped off the table and told the ram-

"I want these things."

Qian, caught off guard, began to say, "But-"

"But what?" the croc asked, his voice getting dangerously low once again.

"But I can't make any more," the ram told him. "I could if I had more powder, but-"

The croc held his claw in the air, stopping the ram in his tracks. Duan Jing turned to look at the leopard, who seemingly knew what his leader was thinking. The leopard nodded, and the croc turned to look back at the ram.

"I can get you the powder."

Qian stood there, his mouth wide open.

Finally, after he digested the words, he said, "Well, it would take me a few weeks to make enough firearms for all of-"

The croc leaned forward, making the ram go silent.

"I don't care about the firearms. I don't need them. I just want the Furious Five dead. You got that?"

Qian quickly nodded.

"So, I can get you the powder. I can have you drowning in it. I can get you the men to do the job. We have the muscle, but what I need is this." The croc tapped his claw on Qian's forehead.

"I need you to make me something, immediately, that will kill the Five. After they're dead, I can promise you that you will live like royalty among us."

Qian was dumbfounded. He had wanted his weapon to remain a secret from the bandits so they wouldn't kill the Five and deprive him of a customer base. But it never occurred to him that he might trade the weapon for a position among them.

With a new outlook on the situation, Qian became a lot more cooperative. His twisted, self-centered mind began to work, began to think of all the ways he could make something to kill the Five and become rich in the process.

After a short pause, Qian looked at the croc and said, "Okay. I'll do it."

Duan Jing smiled, and stuck out his claw. "It's a pleasure to do business with you."

Qian took the claw and shook it.

Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom- Next Morning

Tigress sat on the edge of the cliff overlooking the Valley, her hopes soaring high above the light clouds that blew across the sky. She was in love; nothing could bring her back down to the ground. She was about to enter a life with the one she loved most; what else was there in life? What more could she possibly want? She didn't need the Dragon Warrior title. Her days of being jealous of Po because he had taken the title from her were long gone. They were so far away that she could no longer understand how she could have possibly felt negative feelings towards her panda.

She wasn't even meditating. She was simply sitting on the edge, her legs dangling back and forth like an excited child, staring off into the clouds. Her mind was too active for meditating, there was no way she could only focus on one thing, focus on the things around her.

Tigress' peaceful idleness was disturbed when a voice came from behind her.

"I never took you for a cloud-watcher," came Viper's amused voice.

Tigress turned her head back, smiling at the sight of her sister.

"Maybe you just never watched closely enough," Tigress playfully replied.

"Oh, I watched plenty, trust me. I only have two eyes, but I somehow manage to keep them on five people."

"Sounds like you need a break."

"That would be nice, but who else is going to watch over you all?"

"Maybe we don't need to be watched over."

"Mm-hmm," came Viper's reply, which was followed by her laughter. Her joy radiated to Tigress, who laughed along with her.

After their laughter, the two looked out on the Valley below, taking in everything it had to offer for their eyes. After a few minutes of silence, Viper asked Tigress-

"So what's going to happen now?" Her voice held a special type of curiosity. It wasn't the usual curiosity, the one that asked what was for dinner. No, it was the kind that asked what the meaning of life was; what was going to happen twenty years in the future.

"What do you mean?" Tigress asked back.

"I mean, what's going to happen to us? All of us? You and Po will get married-"

Tigress lips pulled themselves into a smile at the mere mention of Po's name. Her future husband, she thought with satisfaction.

"And then... what next?"

Tigress looked back onto the Valley, thinking about the answer.

After a few seconds of thinking, she responded, "Well, I guess we'll keep doing what we've been doing. We'll keep protecting the Valley, keep doing what we can to help innocent people."

"And what happens after we're gone?"

Tigress looked back at Viper with a curious look. Viper was staring off into the Valley herself, not noticing Tigress turning to look at her.

"And I never took you for a philosophical person," Tigress echoed. The joke finally got Viper to turn her head towards Tigress. She chuckled in slight embarrassment.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But, you have to admit, it is a good question. I mean, soon we'll have to start thinking about the next generation of students. We're going to have to pass on our legacies to the next generation sometime."

"Hmm, I guess you're right, but today, I'm going to think about today. I'll think about tomorrow when it's tomorrow."

The comment elicited a wide grin from Viper, as she now saw her sister, who had suffered through so much, finally understand some of the things that Oogway had tried to tell them all. She couldn't resist the temptation to make a small joke about it.

"You know, maybe your kids will be the next great kung-fu masters of the Valley."

Tigress gave a slight blush. "Oh, I don't know if I'm ready for that quite yet." Tigress paused, thinking about it. "Well, I do think I want a family with Po." Tigress raised a finger in the air. "But, I think that I would like some alone time with Po before that."

Viper had set Tigress up, and was now ready to deliver the punchline.

"Who knows? Maybe your kids are already on the way." Even though Tigress wasn't looking at Viper's expression, she could hear the mischievous smile in her voice.

Tigress knitted her brows together for a few seconds, unsure of what she meant. When the realization finally hit her, she groaned in exasperation, and Viper let her built-up laughter loose.

"Viper! We didn't… I didn't... He wouldn't…" Tigress tried to find the right words as Viper's light laughter grew louder and louder at her attempts to defend herself. Eventually, Tigress went silent, cocked her head to the side, and gave Viper a look that said, "Really?"

After Viper finished laughing, she said, "No, no, I'm only kidding!"

Tigress simply rolled her eyes, and continued looking up at the clouds. Viper decided to look at them, wondering what kind of mysteries they held that could possibly capture Tigress' attention like that.

Viper went silent. She had come up to talk with Tigress about something else, but she couldn't bring herself to infect Tigress' joy with her problems. She hadn't seen Tigress this happy since… well, since… ever. She didn't want to tell Tigress how she felt about Crane. She didn't want to bring Tigress into it. To ask her how she managed to confess to Po. She wanted, no, needed to know how Tigress did it, because she had been needing to tell Crane the same thing for a long time. But she couldn't do it, and he couldn't do it, and a vicious circle ensued.

"Maybe some other time," Viper thought with a slight smile.

The sisters watched the clouds together, slowly dancing their way across the sky.

The Valley of Peace- Noon

Po walked along the streets of the Valley, generating greetings, waves, asks for autographs and sketches, and all sorts of things from the citizens of the Valley. Po did his best to please as many of them as he could, handing out high-fives to anyone who extended him a paw. The crowds followed him everywhere he went, surrounding him, only making a little room so he could move forward.

At first, when Po had initially joined the Five after his defeat of Tai-Lung, the crowds had made Po nervous. He felt as if, somehow, he didn't deserve it. He felt as if he was lying to everyone, including himself, that he was the Dragon Warrior. Tigress had trained for her whole life for the title. Didn't she deserve it, Po had wondered at the time? Sure, he had defeated Tai-Lung, but it wasn't exactly a fair fight. Tai-Lung had been on the move non-stop for days, driven by his desire for the Dragon Scroll. On top of that, he had what must have been a tiring fight against his foster father, and had then wildly, recklessly fought Po for the scroll, only to be completely thrown off guard when he found out the truth about the Dragon Scroll. So that was why the crowds had once made Po nervous, made him feel like a fake and an imposter who had stolen Tigress' life work.

But now, Po understood why Oogway had chosen him instead of the love of his life, and he now welcomed the crowds. So he continued to sign autographs and have sketches made of him with the eager children of the village.

Po was on a mission. He had told everyone at the Palace of his true feelings. Tigress, the Five, Shifu. But he still had to tell two more people about it.

After all, his dads had been teasing him about it for so long now.

As Po was just about to enter Dragon Warrior Noodles and Tofu, he had just signed yet another autograph, and had his head turned around to say goodbye to the excited girl who had her sleeve with the Dragon Warrior's signature. As he turned his head, he didn't see where he was going, and he bumped into somebody, which caused something the person was carrying to drop to the ground.

Po turned to look, his eyes looking down at the bag of spilled noodles on the ground.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Po apologized as he bent down to pick up the spilled noodles. "I'm sorry, I'm so clumsy sometimes."

Po stood back up and looked at the person whose meal he had just ruined.

In front of him stood a young male goat with pale white fur. He looked like a mess. He looked like he hadn't slept in days.

"Sorry, man," Po told the goat. "Let me get you another bag, on the house."

The goat tiredly looked up at Po, as if just realizing that he was there for the first time.

"Hmm?" he asked. "Oh," he finally said, after realizing that he had dropped the bag of noodles. He held up his other hoof, which had a second bag of noodles in it.

"It's okay. I wasn't hungry anyway," the goat told Po. But Po wasn't about to let his mistake ruin someone's meal. He put his paw on the goat's shoulder.

"Come on, let me get you another bag. My dad runs the shop, you know. I'm sure I could get you another one for free."

The goat, now with his free hoof, reached into his robe.

He pulled out a pocket-watch and squinted at it.

"Thanks for the offer, but it's already twelve o'clock and I'm running late as it is."

Po smiled, as his own romantic thoughts had tainted the rest of his thinking. He playfully elbowed the goat, saying in a mischievous voice-

"Oh, I see. You got a certain someone waiting for you?" Po's eyebrows raised up, hoping for an answer in the affirmative. Po was so happy with his current situation that he assumed that everyone else must be as happy as him.

The goat gave a soft smile. "Yeah, I guess you could say that." With that, he began to walk past Po. As he walked away, Po tried one more time to fix his clumsy mistake.

"Hey, just tell me where you live and I can send you another bag of noodles!"

But the goat simply waved his hoof in a gesture of farewell, and disappeared into the crowd.

Po stood there for a moment, curious as to why the goat hadn't wanted a replacement for his ruined meal. When he reached no conclusion, he shrugged and entered his fathers' shop.

If Po hadn't been so focused on his mission to share the news with his fathers, he might have remembered that Master Croc's assassin was a young male goat with pale white fur.

He might have remembered. But he didn't.

And that's a wrap, so to say! I hope you enjoyed the latest installment of this story!

Keep being awesome!