Hello there!

I have… good news and bad news. Which do you want first?

Bad news? Okay, here it is. This isn't the final chapter. This is only the first half. Sorry if you were expecting that and were excited for it. You see, I wanted the final chapter to be longer than usual, like double the length of my average chapters. The average chapter length of my last six or seven chapters have been about 3000 words. But this chapter alone is 8500+ words. If I had combined this one with part 2 of this chapter, it probably would have been 20000+ words, and I don't know how many of you could stomach that all at once. I'm sure some of you could, I'm not doubting your binge-reading ability, but I don't want to jam too much down your throats at once.

Well, the good news? There's one more chapter to go! So you get to keep being excited! And I promise the chapter after this one will actually be the final one of this part!

Oh, you may have noticed the new story cover! It's a more accurate depiction of the story and its writers. A billion thanks to Frozenwolfheart22, for everything.

I sincerely thank you all from the bottom of my heart if you've followed me on this journey all this time. And if you're a new reader, then I welcome you too!

Are you ready? Because I am.

On with the show!

The Jade Palace- Noon

Shifu stood on the top of the steps, right in front of the Hall of Heroes. He had his staff in paw and a stern expression on his face. His face was looking straight ahead, but his eyes were looking down at the stairs, waiting for Tigress to appear on them.

Earlier, when Tigress had left, there had been a few minutes when no one had suspected anything. But Po quickly became curious as to why his fiance hadn't come back, and was about to begin looking for her. But Viper quickly came to Tigress' aid, saying that Tigress wasn't feeling too good in the stomach and that Viper had told her to stay in her room for a little while. This almost backfired, as that made Po want to go over there even more, but Viper insisted that she needed a little peace and quiet.

Even though it was a rather lame lie, Viper had pulled out her inner actress and made it sound real. It might have worked, and it almost did, but Shifu came around to see their progress in their training, and his daughter's absence did not go unnoticed. But when Viper offered him the same explanation, Shifu could see in Viper's eyes that it was nothing more than an act. He had taken her by surprise, quickly asking where Tigress had really gone, and when Viper instinctively reacted with an expression of surprise, she knew she couldn't hide it anymore. She told everyone what Tigress was really up to, but they all took it a little differently.

Monkey, Mantis, and Crane were concerned at first, but soon accepted the idea that Tigress knew what she was doing and wouldn't get hurt. Or perhaps they only said that to comfort Po.

Speaking of Po, the panda was about to take off in a full-on sprint down the Thousand Steps, but Shifu stopped him before he could do so, reminding them all of the warning they had received.

Shifu, however, was mostly angry. Angry that Tigress had disobeyed a direct order to remain in the Palace. She was jeopardizing her safety by going down in the Valley.

It was with that anger that Shifu stood in front of the Hall of Heroes, patiently waiting for Tigress' return. Even though his reaction may have been different than Po's, he still felt the same concern for her, and also thought about going down to the Valley to get her back. But after further thought, this assassin would probably love it if all of the Five came down from the Palace, since he knew that if he left, his students would surely file suit, regardless of his orders.

So while his expression may have showed anger, there was a layer of concern and impatience as his eyes bored holes through the double-doors at the bottom of the steps.

Finally, after what felt like too long, the door slowly opened and Tigress walked through.

The first thing Shifu noticed was Tigress' dejected state. She walked slowly, her shoulders slumped, and her head hung down as if the ground below her had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the world.

When he saw her, his worry melted into relief, but that relief soon turned into anger, as he no longer had to worry over her safety, and there was now more room for the single emotion instead of having to share two.

Tigress finally shuffled her way up the stairs, a long red cloak clutched in her paw. She stopped when she was eye-level with her foster father.

"Where did you go?" Shifu asked.

Tigress sighed in defeat. She could clearly see that Viper had failed in covering for her. Not that she blamed Viper. She knew that she was most likely to get caught when she came back. Her only hope had been succeeding, but after her heated confrontation with Lianmin, she had been too angry to think, and had decided that it would be best if she went back to the Palace.

"I went down to the Valley to search for the assassin," Tigress replied.

"Why?" Shifu asked. Tigress looked up at him, curious as to why he would ask that. Wasn't it obvious?

Tigress had to suppress herself from growling. She was over twenty years old. She was not a child anymore, and she did not feel like being on the receiving end of one of Shifu's lectures. She was not the same helpless and friendless creature he had taken from the orphanage. And while they had been making progress in their relationship recently, Tigress still felt as if she couldn't tell him everything.

"Because it's my duty to protect the Valley from danger." She seemed confident in her answer.

The red panda shook his head. "You know that's not what I meant. Why did you go to the Valley when you were explicitly told not to?"

Tigress then knew what point Shifu was trying to make. At first, she tried to come up with another excuse, but she soon realized it was pointless. There was no lie she could make that Shifu wouldn't see straight through.

So Tigress stood up straight and decided to face what she had done. "I went to look for the assassin because he might make an attempt on Po's life."

"And you believed that made you invulnerable to this killer? Tigress, how do you think Po would feel if this murderer killed you only to distract him? And how do you think I would feel?" Shifu's eyes uncharacteristically began to water as the thoughts of losing his daughter filled his head.

Tigress' own eyes began to water. Her head started to spin a little, and she began to feel a little nauseous. "Father, I can't lose Po. I just… can't. I simply can't see life without him anymore. I don't know what I would do if I…"

Shifu put his paw up to put a pin in that thought.

"Tigress, we're warriors, and we put our lives at risk by being so."

Tigress nodded, perfectly aware of what she did for a living. She always knew the risk, but it was something that was in the back of her mind. It was like being struck by lightning. It felt like it would never happen to her. It might happen to other people, but she just knew that it couldn't happen to her. She, Po, and the Five had survived so many close encounters with death that death didn't seem to be that much of a threat anymore. But now that Master Croc was dead, everything had changed. The threat of death loomed over them like never before.

"But we will overcome this-"' Shifu continued. "-We have been through much worse than this, and we survived. Just as we will survive this, together."

Shifu sighed, and stepped forward to take Tigress' paw, putting both of his paws on it, one on the top and the other on the bottom.

"Just give it time. The assassin will be found, but we just need to be patient."

While Shifu had been talking, Tigress blinked, as she began to see him moving across her field of view over and over again. The nausea in her stomach kicked it up a level, and Tigress clutched her stomach.

Shifu quickly noticed his daughter's behavior. "Tigress, are you alright?"

Tigress held her paw up. "I'm… fine, just let me-"

Tigress didn't finish that sentence as she sat down on the top held her head in her paws as the world kept on spinning. Tigress was really suffering as the nausea built up, but she soon became relieved when she felt the hot liquid rising from her throat.

She bent over to the side away from Shifu, and unceremoniously vomited on the stone steps. Shifu was instantly by her side- the one not covered in vomit- and put his paw on her shoulder.

"What's wrong? Are you sick?"

Tigress shook her head as it cleared up. Her nausea was now gone, and she felt a lot better than she had a few minutes ago.

"Whew. I'm okay now. I think-"

"-I think you've been under a lot of stress lately. Go. You need to rest today."

Tigress nodded. After her breakfast had decided it didn't want to stay eaten, that was one order she no longer felt like disobeying.

Shifu turned to leave, and Tigress got up to follow him. As they were about to enter the barracks, he looked back towards he steps and added-

"And I'll send some servants to clean that up."

Valley Center- Night

The center of the Valley was usually a very busy place. The large square housed many shops and let all kinds of people get to those shops. On each side, there were two larger buildings that had multiple floors to them. On the top level, there was nothing but an open-air room with only a tiled roof supported by thick bamboo trunks on each corner. During the day, the Valley guards usually overlooked the square from the view the two buildings offered.

But three o'clock in the morning was not a busy time at all. In fact, it was now barren in the darkness, with only the half-moon in the sky to light a traveler's way.

Which was fortunate for a certain ram who was alone in the square. He had arrived a few minutes ago, and, after looking around from a corner to make sure no one would see him, stepped out in the center of the square to get a better picture of things.

Qian looked around in the blackness and tried to visualize what it was going to be like on the wedding day.

"Okay," he thought to himself, "It has to take place so that those buildings are on the sides of the main ceremony."

That made sense to the ram, as they probably preferred not to get married right next to a wall.

The ram looked up and down the length of the street. "Hmm, but which side? Towards the Palace, or away?"

After a few minutes of thinking, Qian waved his hoof as he dismissed the idea, as it didn't really matter to his plan.

He picked the side so that it was in the direction of the Jade Palace. In fact, all Qian had to do was tilt his head upwards to see the Jade Palace in the distance.

"Okay. So the wedding starts, and the crowd will be cluttered all around here."

Qian stood in the middle of the square.

"But Shao doesn't want to get too far since he's a crappy shot with that thing."

So Qian moved up a few steps, so that he was closer now, but still far enough from where the front row would be.

"This is about right. Okay, then, Po will be waiting, and Tigress will walk down the aisle with Shifu. And then she and Po will walk to the front, and all the fancy words will commence."

And then Qian tried his best to imagine what his fickle employee would do.

"Well, assuming he shows up, he would be standing here, and he would see his chance. He would pull out the firearm, point it at Tigress, and let the bullet fly."

Then the big question came to him. "What then?"

He looked around as he tried to imagine what Shao would do. Well, he would run, he knew that much. But which direction?

Qian looked down towards the opposite street from where he imagined the ceremony would take place. "Hmm, no," he thought. "He knows they'd outrun him. He can't try to beat them in a footrace."

He turned to the sides and searched the buildings. The smaller shops, maybe?

"No," he thought again. "It would be too easy to get trapped."

Finally, his eyes rested on the large buildings that rested in the center of the sides.

"Ah, there we go. Multiple levels to lose them in. Maybe he'll run in there, try to lose them, and then run out a back door. It makes the most sense."

Qian then looked back and forth between the two buildings. "But which one is he going to run into?" Both were identical, and neither seemed to offer an advantage over the other. Qian did a little math in his head.

"Ah, well, I think we have enough gunpowder for both. It just won't be quite as spectacular. But it's okay, I'll just tell the bandits to leave them near the main supports for the buildings, and it should be quite enough to make the buildings quickly collapse."

Qian ran the idea through his head over and over again, looking for any ways it could be foiled. He found a few, but there weren't many possible failures when compared with the possible successes.

A wide grin split the ram's face as he could begin to taste his reward. What would they give him, he wondered? How much money could they offer once the Five were dead and they took over the Valley?

"I mean, the jade floors in the Hall of Heroes alone are expensive to let me live in a mansion!"

Qian looked up and could make out the Palace, peacefully sitting on it's mountain home. The ram smiled as he held his hoof up to the Palace and closed one eye, so that it seemed to him as if he were holding the Palace in his hoof.

What was much more frightening was the fact that he really was.

Valley Inn- Next Day- Early Morning

In the Valley inn, in the eighth room down the hall and to the left, a leopardess and her son were sleeping.

Well, the son was sleeping. The mother was not. She had been awake for an hour, but remained in bed, spending some quality time with her thoughts.

Lianmin had been continuing her thought process that had been interrupted when Tigress had caught her attention.

Truthfully, she was regretting her unprofessional behavior towards Tigress. She really did respect the kung-fu master. The two of them were both female felines, and there were some people who didn't like one, or sometimes both, of those groups, but the two of them had pushed through all life had thrown at them and made it to where they were today. Even with the less-than-stellar hand that life had dealt them, they managed to go from helpless orphans to successful masters in their respective fields.

But when she had torn that cloak off of her, she had been so excited that she might have gotten lucky enough to have caught the very person she had been looking for. She hadn't really expected it at first, but once the cloaked figure had started running, Lianmin's suspicions shot through the roof. To have that excitement dashed by someone who wasn't even supposed to be in the Valley was… disappointing, to say the least.

Lianmin had been very angry, and now wished she could take back many of the things she had said. But, it was now too late.

"Ah, feeling sorry for yourself won't help," she thought to herself. "I can apologize after we find the killer. She'll be glad to talk to me then." Pushing the thoughts to the side, she resumed her thoughts of the day before.

"So maybe we've been looking at this all wrong. Perhaps this is a person acting out of their own will. It makes sense, because an assassin wouldn't have left Master Ox behind. But what could this person possibly want to kill Master Croc for? And why not Master Ox? I could understand if the two of them made some decision that he hadn't liked, but he would have tried to kill both of them. No, Master Croc would have had to have done something personally to this killer. But what? Master Croc isn't a bad person. He's not doing bad things. So it seems like the killer just has something against him."

Lianmin raked her brain for ideas, but none came. So she tried to continue her thoughts.

"And the Soothsayer said his next move was against the Jade Palace. But who?" The Dragon Warrior seemed like the natural choice, but this killer had shown he wasn't doing this for power. So who?

Suddenly, a memory flashed by Lianmin's brain.

She had been only eighteen years old when she had enlisted in her city's local guard. She remembered that day, as she walked up to the desk in the front and boldly told the pig in front that she was applying. She could remember the old pig raising his brow slightly. She remembered how she had quickly asked him-

"What, can't I join?"

The pig had shaken his head, embarrassed. "No, no, you can join, it's just that… we don't get too many of your kind in here. At least, not on the lawful side. There's plenty in the back behind bars."

That memory had stuck with Lianmin, but she only now appreciated what it might mean.

"Is it possible that the assassin thinks the same way? That predators are a danger to everyone?"

To the leopardess, the idea seemed far-fetched, but she had to admit that it was better than where she was.

"And if that's the case, then maybe that goat…"

Linamin shot up out of bed, quickly throwing her vest over her shoulders and chest wrappings, clasped it together, and then shook Peng in his bed.

"Peng!"

Her son shot up at the sudden interruption of his sleep, frantically looking around. "What!? What's going on!?"

"Come on, get up, we have to go!"

"What!? Go where!?"

"That pharmacy again! We have to talk with that goat! Come on, before he gets away from us!"

Most people would have probably stared in confusion at Lianmin, but Peng knew her well enough to know that when she was dead serious. He threw the sheets off of him and quickly clasped his own vest together. Without taking anything else, the two left their small room at the inn and hurried out onto the waking morning streets.

The Sun was just beginning to rise, tinting the sky with reds and oranges. The weather was pleasant, with only a few wispy clouds strutting about in the sky and a light breeze following the clouds' example. The people of the Valley were beginning to wake up and begin their day, but the streets had not yet reached their full capacity.

The two leopards quickly walked through the streets as Lianmin tried to recall where the pharmacy was. After a few wrong turns and some backtracking, they finally came upon it again.

Things were different this time. There was no hesitation. Lianmin quickly threw the door open and Peng followed.

They blinked and tried to adjust their eyes to the darker, candle-lit room. Once they did, they made out a slightly confused ram behind the counter. But their target, that goat, was nowhere to be found.

"Can I help-" Qian nervously began, but Lianmen and Peng quickly closed the gap between the two of them and the counter.

"Where is your employee?"

The ram slightly cowered away from the counter at the sudden question. "My employee? You mean Shao?"

"Yes, him. Where is he?"

"Umm, he's at his house, I imagine, getting ready to come here. But why do you want to know?"

"Sir, as you may have guessed, we did not come here yesterday to purchase any of your products. We came because we are investigating the death of Master Croc of Gongmen City and we believe that his murderer has arrived in this Valley. When we received word of a person that matched the murderer' description worked here, we came to investigate. At first, we dismissed the idea, as your employee doesn't exactly fit the stereotype of a killer. But, we have to make sure. We need to speak with him now."

As she had been talking, Qian had kept a straight face. But on the inside, he began to panic.

"Shit." That one word held the ram's attention longer than he cared to admit.

As Lianmin finished her sentence, Qian's mind frantically tried to scramble his way out of this mess he now found himself in.

"I… you… you want to talk to-"

Lianmin easily picked up on his confusion, but misinterpreted it. "I understand that this must be shocking news to you, but please, we need to find the assassin of Master Croc as soon as possible. We believe he plans to strike again against the Masters of the Jade Palace."

A sudden rainbow shot through Qian's brain as he realized that she didn't suspect that he was involved with Shao's dealings. He breathed an inner sigh of relief and regained control over himself.

"Yes, I see. Well, I can assure you that my employee is not the person you're looking for. He's simply not that kind of person."

Lianmin, having already heard this, gave a short sigh of frustration. "Yes, I understand, but we still need to speak with him immediately."

The leopardess' eyes began to instinctively work their way all around the small candle-lit room. When her eyes passed by the door that led to the stairwell, she didn't linger on it, passing it for a closet, yet Qian's heart gave a small jolt.

"Of course!" He chuckled nervously. "I understand! Well, I believe he's in his house now!"

Finally getting somewhere, Linamin raised her brow. "Where does he live?"

Shao's House- Early Morning

Shao could remember the time that he got out of bed in the morning with purpose. When he actually wanted to go to his job at the pharmacy. When he was excited to hold a steady job that allowed him to support himself.

That was a long, long time ago.

Even before the mess he now found himself in, he had lost that kind of enthusiasm long ago. Every day became one, destined to repeat itself over and over again in an endless circle. Getting up, going to work, coming back, eating, sleeping, getting up, going to work…

But at least when he was in that cycle, he actually did get up. He may not have wanted to, but he made himself do it anyway. His brain was simply hardwired that way; he needed to get up, so he got up.

But something had happened to those wires after Master Croc. They didn't work anymore.

Instead of getting up when the sunlight flooded his bedroom from the small window, he continued to lay in bed. He would look up with blank eyes at the ceiling. Whatever he was thinking about, it made nothing register in his dead eyes.

In only a short few weeks, Shao had started to become a different person. Before, he had been just another person, trudging his way through life. He hadn't exactly been doing the best he could do to get through life, but he did enough. He always had food on the table.

But now he was like a ghost. He no longer felt hungry. He didn't want to sleep at night. His thoughts had become filled with Tigress. He had begun to obsess over her night and day, constantly imagining the wedding in his head. He was so tired of thinking about what was right and what was wrong, what he should do or what he shouldn't do, what might happen and what might not.

So, to solve this issue, Shao had simply pushed those thoughts out of his head like a teenage girl pushes a cheating boyfriend out of her house. "Goodbye, take your stuff and get out."

All there was room for now was the impending duty that lay before him. What was the point of going to his job now? The fact was, Shao no longer saw life after the wedding. He had no thoughts of "what comes next?" He felt as if somehow, if he could actually do it, if he could defeat his demons by killing Tigress, then he would somehow find peace.

And you didn't need a job if you had inner peace.

So Shao felt no desire to get out of bed. But after a while, his back began to become sore, so he decided it was for the best. He slowly threw the sheets off of him and began to get ready for his day.

His parents would have wanted this, he thought to himself. They would have wanted to have their deaths avenged. And while Shao couldn't go and find the individual bandits who killed his parents, he could make sure that other predators wouldn't inflict any harm on anyone else.

After Shao had completed the mundane activities, he came into his living room and lit the fireplace, planning to have a cup of tea before he left. He sat down in his usual chair, facing the fireplace at an angle, with the chair's back towards the door.

Shao folded his hooves on his lap and seemed prepared to stare into the fire for a few more minutes with those dead eyes, but his moment of silence was interrupted by a sound coming from the door.

Knock, knock, knock!

Shao jolted in his seat and his neck almost snapped with the speed he used as his head spun back to look at the door. Nobody ever came to visit him. Ever. So who could it possibly be?

His question was soon answered as a female voice shouted through the door.

"My name is Lianmin and I am looking for information about the late Master Croc of Gongmen City! Open this door right now!"

It was fortunate that Shao did not need to use the restroom at the moment, because if he had, he would have surely deposited whatever he held into his pants.

He sat with an open mouth as his brain put the pieces together.

They knew about Master Croc.

The world seemed to fall apart all around the goat. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. All there was anymore was himself and the door just a few feet away. He just wanted to sit there and let his fate come to him.

But his fight or flight instincts kicked in, mostly leaning toward the "flight" side of the spectrum. He quickly shot up from his chair and ran back through his hall and into his bedroom. He frantically searched around and found his wardrobe. He looked up and found what he was looking for: the gun. He snatched it from its place on top of the wardrobe, stuffed it half-way in his pants, dropped to the floor, and rolled underneath his bed. It wasn't a good plan, but it was the first thing that came to his panicked mind.

He could still hear the pounding on his door as his visitor became more and more impatient.

"Open this door! This is the law! I demand you open this door!"

Meanwhile, outside of Shao's house, Lianmin and Peng were impatiently waiting.

Shao's house was located in the outskirts of the Valley, where bamboo forests began to envelope the roads and walkways. There was a simple dirt road that connected these isolated houses to each other, and eventually ran back into the Valley. But as they had arrived through the dirt path that Qian had told them to go, they saw a house that was surrounded by a forest of bamboo trees, and another house could not be seen all around.

Lianmin was growing very impatient as a big decision had to be made.

Peng folded his arms across his chest. "I don't know, mom, we may have missed him."

Lianmin stood still, letting her eyes drift off into the distance as she began to think.

"You're right…" she replied, letting her words drift away. Peng saw the expression on his mother's face and instantly knew what she was thinking.

"Mom, you know we can't go in there if he doesn't open the door."

But when he saw his mother intently staring down the door, he once again knew what she was thinking.

"Mom-" he began, but Lianmin began to back up a few steps.

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission." As she finished that sentence, she charged forward and kicked the door where the knob was and it flew open on its hinges with a loud "crack!"

"Mom!" Peng shouted. "We can get in serious trouble for this!"

As he was speaking, his mother was already walking in. "We'll get in even more trouble if we don't. Come on. Keep your eyes open."

Peng hesitated for a second before following her inside.

They stood at the doorframe for a moment, looking around. They were in a small, quaint house built for a single person. They found themselves in the living room, with its chair and table overlooking the fireplace. On the wall opposite them, there was a door leading to the kitchen. On the wall left of them, there was another door leading to a hall.

But the first thing that caught Lianmin's attention was the fireplace.

It was still burning.

Lianmin immediately held up her finger to her lips towards Peng, who instantly understood. Whoever lived here, and whoever they really were, they were still in the house.

Their footsteps made no noise as they moved across the rug that adorned the floor of the living room, with its red and gold patterns. And when they poked their heads into the kitchen and looked around, with the counter, cabinets and tools necessary for cooking, their feet still made no sound as they stepped on the wooden floor.

Backing out of the kitchen, they moved together into the hall, walking shoulder-to-shoulder. They crept closer and closer to the end of it, until they could make out a single doorframe to their right. Lianmin held up her paw and they stopped moving, listening to any sounds around them.

But none came.

So, Lianmin once again crept forward with Peng following close behind. They poked their heads around the doorframe and saw a simple bedroom. On one end, there was a bed, and on the other, a small wardrobe.

They entered the bedroom and looked around, but there was still nothing else to interest them.

Lianmin finally broke the tense silence with something between a sigh and a growl.

"Ugh, I thought he was here."

"Maybe he just left?" Peng offered.

Lianmin shrugged. "I don't know." She sighed again, this time with disappointment. "But we missed him. Hopefully he's only gone back to the pharmacy, and we can question him there."

Peng looked around one more time, hoping that something might magically pop up.

It didn't.

"Well, you want to go back?"

Lianmin folded her arms across her chest. "No. Not yet. Let's look around and see what we can find. If we're lucky, and he really has some kind of new weapon, it might be hidden around here somewhere.

They started with the wardrobe, opening it, only to find clothing folded up on the bottom and yet more clothing hanging from the top. They closed it and moved into the hall, headed toward the kitchen.

Meanwhile, said weapon was actually just underneath the bed of the room they had just left, and it's owner was as frozen as a statue, his hooves clamped over his own mouth and his eyes wide open. He had prayed to every deity he knew when the two were in his bedroom, hoping for the chance that they wouldn't look under the bed. They hadn't, but he now found himself trapped in his own house, as the only door was the front one. Well, there was a second in the kitchen that led to the back, but as he could hear his cabinet doors being opened, he knew that wasn't an option. And he couldn't go through the front door, because they would see him from the kitchen.

"Oh, think, think, THINK!" Shao's panicked mind told itself. He scrambled for ideas, and he finally got one.

He poked his head out from under the bed and looked up at his window. It was big enough for him to fit through.

Shao didn't hesitate as he rolled out from under the bed, scrambled up, lowered his horns, and charged forward. Just before he hit the window, he launched his feet from the ground and dove headfirst right through the window, smashing the glass with a loud crash!. He hit the grass outside his house face-first, but quickly scrambled up again and sprinted away into the woods as fast as he possibly could, his adrenaline fueling him to run faster than he ever had before.

As soon as he broke through the glass, Lianmin and Peng's heads shot up, and they raced back into the hall and into Shao's bedroom, where they found the window missing the glass. They ran to it, and saw the glass on the outside, shattered.

Linamin growled. "He was here! He-" She was about to say something else, but she realized that he was slipping from her grasp with every second she wasted. She quickly dived out of the window, landing on all fours and taking off full-speed. She shouted over her shoulder to Peng-

"Don't follow me! Go back to Mr. Ping's and wait for me!" With that, she turned her head back around and followed the fresh tracks in front of her, determined to not let him get away, as she now felt certain that he was the person they were looking for.

Peng hung by the window for a split second, almost about to jump out of the window himself and follow his mother, but her warning made him think twice.

At first, when he had accompanied her on her job, she had always ordered him to hang back while she handled the confrontation with their targets. But, as Peng showed his own kung-fu skill, she began to allow him to join her in the confrontations with less-dangerous criminals.

But none of them had been this deadly. A few murderers, yes, but a kung-fu master murderer? There weren't many of them to go around.

Peng desperately wanted to go and help his mother, as he too was worried for her safety. But he knew that when his mother told him something, she meant it, and he knew the consequences of not obeying her commands. He knew she told him that not only out of concern for his safety, but also because she didn't need him slowing her down. The thought also occurred to Peng that if this assassin was so skilled, then why hadn't he come out to fight instead of hiding and running away?

His mother's warning on his mind, Peng reluctantly turned away from the window. He walked out of the bedroom and out of the house, taking the dirt path back to the Valley, prepared to wait for Lianmin in Mr. Ping's noodle shop.

He walked quickly, turning his head back to look at the bamboo trees that stood in between him, his mother, and a murderer. They were in there somewhere, he thought. What was happening? Had she caught him already? Had she caught up with him and pounced on him from behind, hit the back of his head with enough force to knock him out, and was now carrying the unconscious body back to the road? Or was she still chasing him; following the tracks like a predator chasing its prey? Or worse, had the assassin pulled out his weapon and…

"No," Peng thought. "That's not going to happen."

Peng tried his best to empty his mind of thoughts as he quickly walked through the dirt path.

Soon, he began to find evidence of civilization again, as he could make out the gates to the main part of the Valley. He passed through, his eyes low and his arms stuck to his sides.

Soon enough, he found himself in the busy streets of the Valley. But as he passed by people who were going about their daily business, his mind soon drifted off to other things.

"So that assassin was in the house the whole time. Where was he? Under the bed? Was he really that close to us?"

As Peng kept thinking about the goat who he had seen at the pharmacy only a short time ago, he remembered his boss. When they had walked in to question him where his employee was, he seemed nervous. Of course, telling anyone that someone they've known for years might be a killer would certainly shock them, but as Peng recalled the memory, he could have sworn that there was more than just shock in that ram's expression. Was it… fear?

Why should he be scared, Peng wondered? If he wasn't involved in anything-

Peng instantly stopped when that idea passed by his head.

If he wasn't involved in anything.

He and his mother had been so obsessed with the goat that they never stopped to consider if he had partners in his crimes. What if his boss knew? What if they were working together? At the moment, it made perfect sense, and Peng couldn't see how he had missed that conclusion earlier.

"So that means that the ram could be responsible too. And if that's the case…"

Peng searched the streets, trying to get his bearings. He hadn't been in the Valley of Peace for too long, and hadn't yet memorized the layout of the place. But he soon saw some familiar shops and signs and remembered how to get back to the pharmacy.

Peng walked with purpose as he passed by the other villagers. He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do yet, but he knew he needed to capture the ram before he had a chance to escape. He knew they were on to his employee, and he was probably getting nervous, assuming he was involved.

"Well, I'll make sure not to hurt him," Peng thought to himself. "I know it's risky. We might get in trouble if he's innocent. But if he's not innocent…"

The thought then came to Peng that he might be dangerous. But he remembered the ram, middle-aged and very out of shape, and his bouncy customer-ready smile he wore when they had entered the shop posed as customers, and he dismissed the thought of him being a threat.

He then thought that he should wait for Lianmin to meet him in Mr. Ping's noodle shop like she had told him.

"No, I don't need to wait for Mom," he thought. "I can handle this by myself. Besides, I just know she'll be thrilled after she captures the goat that I've captured his boss. No. I can do this."

As Peng had been thinking all of this, he finally arrived at his destination. There it was, the simple, small shop, inviting him to come in.

Peng took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing his mind for the task ahead. He let go of his breath and stepped forward.

He opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind him. He was prepared to explain himself, but as he looked around, he realized there was no one in the room.

Peng began to nervously sweat. "Has he already escaped?" he thought to himself.

Peng leaned over the counter just to make sure he wasn't hiding like his employee had, but there was nothing on the other side of the counter other than the floor below. Peng turned his head back toward the two doors in the back of the small shop.

He stepped forward and stopped in front of both doors. There was one directly in the middle of the wall, and a second one on the left side. He went to the left one first and opened it. He poked his head out, only to see the alleyways of the Valley of Peace. In fact, it was the same alleyway that he and Lianmin had caught Tigress in.

Shaking that thought from his head, as it brought back questions of how his mother was doing just then, he stepped back and closed the door. He then stepped in front of the center door and opened it up.

Peng's eyes went wide at what he saw. He had expected it to be a closet. At least, that was what he took it for when he had been in the shop the first two times. Instead, there was an old stairwell leading down. The staircase was lit with only two torches, one mounted on either side of the walls, giving the corridor an eerie atmosphere, as if he were in a dungeon.

Bracing himself, Peng began to quietly move down the steps, trying not to make any noise. He made progress, slowly getting closer and closer to the bottom.

He was almost at the bottom, and he could see an old wooden door on the right, but just as his foot reached the second-to-last stair, the stair suddenly gave a loud "creak!"

He instantly moved his foot away and put it on the bottom step, but the damage was done. From behind the door, his sensitive ears picked up on some shuffling.

Now certain that he was not alone, Peng hopped to the bottom of the steps and tried to open the door. It was locked.

Peng took a step back to give himself room, reared back his leg, and snapped the lock on the other side with a well-placed kick. The door flung open, the hinges still holding it in place. He quickly stepped though, where a curious sight lay before him.

Similar to the staircase, there was no light in the basement, save for a few torches mounted on the walls on either side and a few candles. In front of him was a long table, and he was on the short end. The long side of it extended deep into the other side of the room. On top of it was an assortment of all kinds of trinkets and gadgets. Peng could make out retractable claw gauntlets, smoke bombs, and other trinkets that he couldn't even name.

There were two more long tables, each one pushed up against the walls. On them was an assortment of half-finished products, with their moving parts all laid out on the tables.

But perhaps most interestingly, in this room of very interesting things, were the barrels right in the corner close to Peng. Without even moving, he could see what was inside the barrels, as their lids had been cut open.

Gunpowder.

Peng had observed all of this in an instant, and now quickly searched the room for the ram who he knew was in there with him.

There was nobody to be seen at first glance, but Peng's time with his mother taught him that of all his senses, his sight was the least dependable. He knew he had heard something, or rather someone, moving when he had stepped on the stair that creaked.

So Peng quietly moved to the side, walking across the space in between the table on the left and the table in the middle, carefully looking all around, including underneath the table, in case he was hiding underneath there like the goat had been hiding underneath the bed.

He still didn't see anything as he moved along the table, but as he reached the end of it, he heard a shuffling from the other side of the room. He quickly turned, and on the other side of the table, on the end of the room by the door, was the ram.

He was not the same person he remembered from only an hour ago.

The ram held a one-sided fire axe in his hooves. The ram was looking at Peng with an almost amused expression, but Peng could see, even from across the room and the table, the malice behind his amusement.

The ram softly stepped forward, although the entire length of the table still separated the two of them.

"What are you doing here kid?" Qian asked, speaking softly and slowly. "This is no place for children, especially when their mommies aren't with them."

Peng felt a desire to leap upon the table and make a dash for him, but his curiosity got the better of him.

"Who are you?"

"Someone who's about to become filthy rich once I get rid of the Furious Five."

"So you're responsible for Master Croc's death?"

The ram laughed. "Oh, in a way. You see, that employee of mine isn't what you think he is. He's not some remorseless assassin. He's just a confused little brat with family issues. And I guided that confusion on Master Croc, just as I'm going to guide it onto the Furious Five."

Peng suddenly wondered why he was telling him all of this. It seemed rather stupid to let his enemy know his plan.

"Why are you telling me now? Why not just try and kill me?"

"Kill you? Oh, sure, I'd love to, as you're becoming a nuisance, but I know your type. I don't think I'd last very long against you. That's why I went and requested some help from my bandit friends after you visited me that second time. I can't kill you, but I can hold you here long enough for my help to arrive."

Finally understanding that the ram was stalling him so the bandits could come and capture him, Peng moved into the space in between the two tables and made a sprint for the other side. Qian quickly stepped in his path, but Peng kept on running.

As he got closer, Qian lifted his axe to the side and gave a horizontal swipe, emitting a harsh battle-cry at the same time. The blow would have killed Peng had he not bent backwards at the last second and let the axe head fly right over the tip of his snout.

With the opening, he quickly kicked the ram in the stomach, sending him reeling back. Channeling his leopard-style of kung-fu, he was relentless as he pressed forward, punching Qian right in the nose, knocking him to the ground. Peng jumped on top of the ram, but Qian managed to hold up the long handle of his axe to block him. Peng landed on top of him, both gripping the axe handle. But Qian quickly kicked Peng in the stomach, and used the leverage the axe handle gave him to flip the leopard off of him.

The two quickly scrambled up, and Qian was the first to lunge at Peng with a downward swing of his axe, but Peng caught it with a single paw. He attempted to snatch it away from the ram, as he would be defenseless without it, but Qian was determined not to be stopped in his plans. He put both his hooves on it as Peng put both his paws and the two engaged in a sort of tug-of-war, each trying to pull the axe away from the other. As they pulled, they looked up at each other, Peng's face straining with focus, and Qian's straining with anger.

Finally, Peng gave the axe a pull with all of his strength, and given how he was stronger than Qian, he brought it towards him, but the ram held on to it like a leech holds on to its victims. So Peng simply let go of the axe as Qian pulled, causing him to slip backwards and fall down.

Now focused on getting out of the pharmacy before the bandits arrived, Peng leaped over the ram and sprinted towards the door. But Qian was also relentless, as he got up, dropped the axe, and was right on his heels.

Peng threw the door open and made it into the stairwell, Qian following at such speed that he slammed his shoulder into the wall on the stairwell. Peng began to sprint up the steps, but Qian gave his last effort in diving up the stairs, catching Peng's foot in his hoof, tripping him. Peng desperately tried to shake his foot free, but Qian held on to it as if his life was at stake.

Finally, Peng turned his head around. Both of them were lying upwards on the stairs, so Peng used his free leg to kick Qian in the face, making the ram grunt with pain as he let go of his foot and fell down the stairs. Finally free, Peng ran up the rest of the stairs and flew through the door leading to the main shop.

Just as he entered it, the door to his right, the one that led to the alleyway, opened up and a large, scaly claw grabbed the doorframe.

The first thing Peng saw was the snout. The intruder had to duck his head to fit inside the door. He stepped through; a huge crocodile with a large two-sided battle axe strapped to his back and a sheath for a knife on his belt.

Peng froze when he saw the crocodile. The croc smiled at Peng. "Leaving so soon?"

Pushing the hesitation aside, Peng dashed at Duan Jing, jumping up and spinning around at the same time, poised to deliver a devastating kick to the bandit king's face.

Right before it reached him, the croc's claw shot up and caught Peng's foot. He was so much taller than Peng that he dangled him upside down, held up by his foot. Then, the croc threw his foot back in the air, sending Peng flying up. He spun in the air, trying to land on his feet, but he had been thrown from such an awkward position that he was unable to do so before he landed on the counter, smashing right through it with his back.

Peng attempted to jump back up, but Duan Jing was on top of him instantly, picking him up by his throat with one claw.

Peng clawed at the croc's arm and kicked at his chest, but it was to no avail. As Peng began to helplessly wheel his legs in the air, he started coughing, trying to catch a breath of air.

Duan Jing only smiled.

He then lifted Peng up as far as he could, almost making his head touch the ceiling. Still clutching his throat, Duan Jing brought Peng downwards, slamming him down on the floor as hard as he could.

Peng hit the ground, and everything went black.

Welcome to the end of part 1 of this chapter! Sorry if it's a bit of a cliffhanger, but I felt like it was the best place to end it. I hope you'll tune in next time for the finale of this part! I'm so excited! Hope you are too!

Keep being awesome!