A/N: I'm such an awful writer….I left you all hanging for so long…sorry

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"My dad used to tell me stories about my mom."

"What would he say?"

"That she was powerful." Yu's voice was barely above a murmur. "And beautiful."

Darkness had settled on the camp. The air was thick with humidity, so to cool off, they opted to lay in the grass rather than in their cots. Side by side, they lay there, looking up at the stars and listening to the various bugs and birds that chirped through the night.

The camp was quiet. For the first time in a while, people were actually sleeping through the night. There were no more graves to dig, no more fires to put out. Shang Zhi was quiet.

"I don't remember my mom." Kai spoke after a moment. Yu glanced out of the corner of her eye at him. "All I remember is my father."

"The Emperor?"

"Yup." His jaw clenched, a telltale sign that he was worried. It had been over a full day since Tigress and Po had gone missing. They were nowhere to be found. "I was young, but I remember a time before the wolves."

"My father and I were traders." Yu smiled to herself, hoping that by being relaxed, she would help ease his worries. If she were being honest with herself, she was worried as well. "We used to carry fruits and vegetables to the royal palace on occasion. I remember the day they stopped allowing us in."

"Father got worried." Kai replied, brow furrowed as though he were trying hard to remember. "He had heard about the wolves. They overran the palace not too long after."

She watched the unsteady rise and fall of his breathing before speaking. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

He shook his head. "I don't remember much."

Silence ensued once again. Only the occasional shift of a cool breeze disturbed the peace. For a moment, it felt as though Yu may drift off, but the sudden flapping of wings caught both of their attention.

Just as they got to their feet, Crane touched down in the middle of the road, breathing ragged and his hat lopsided.

"Crane!" Mei Ling darted out from a tent and got to him just before he could collapse.

Yu and Kai sprinted over to them, reaching the pair just as Shifu came out of his tent, hurriedly throwing on his robes.

"Crane? What happened?"

"I went-I went back to the valley." Crane panted. "I've been going back and forth all day but there was nothing. On the way back, I got turned around, saw a bunch of lights."

"Crane, skip to the point." Viper had reached them just as he finished speaking.

"Wolves. Coming. We don't have much time."

They all stood around, shocked for a moment at what he was saying. It was Monkey who spoke first.

"How many?"

"A hundred? I don't know. As soon as I saw them, I high-tailed it out of there." He seemed to finally have caught his breath.

"How long do we have?"

"Hours." Crane breathed. "If that."

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She kept herself low, moving through the trees carefully and quietly, only her eyes reflecting anything in the moonlight.

The caravan down below had stopped for the night, and the wolves had seen fit to build several small campfires and open a crate of rice wine. They talked loudly amongst themselves, all twenty of them. She wondered briefly if any of them knew what kind of cargo they were carrying. Tigress was sure that if they knew, they'd be way more on guard than this.

She had been following them most of the day and through the night, but there was nowhere along the route she was able to easily take them all until darkness fell. With only two guards posted and the others beginning to drink, she wondered if this was a trap.

She began to slink out of the forest, but paused midstep when a conversation caught her attention.

"I don't know why we need to worry about moving all this crap. It's not like the rebel scum are gonna stay in Shang Zhi anyway." Several of the wolves laughed loudly.

"I just hope we don't have to lug all this crap back when they clear it out." Replied another voice, along with several more chuckles.

Suddenly it clicked for her, why they weren't on guard. As far as anyone knew, she had run back to Shang Zhi. All of the rebels were in Shang Zhi. If they were taken out….

Her vision turned red, her whole body quaking with absolute rage as she caught on, and there was no control left in her.

She snapped so completely, lunging from her hiding place in pure, uncontrolled fury. There were no strategies, no plans as she moved around the small clearing, claws on automatic and finding their target without so much as an ounce of hesitation.

She only paused when there were no more wolves running after her, breathing ragged and uneven. It finally dawned on her after a moment what exactly she had done, how much blood she had on her paws.

Shang Zhi.

The word permeated her thoughts, long enough for her to come to her senses, to figure out some way of stopping the wolves before they could get to the city. But, she was several hours away and Po was still locked up somewhere.

Her gaze drifted to the crates on the back of the cart and somehow she knew which one housed the object she was looking for.

The staff.

She removed it carefully from its box and held it in her paw a moment, feeling the warm metal against her paw pads. For a split second, she marveled at its intricacy, its beauty. There was a power coursing through it. She thought of all the things she could do with that staff…

Shang Zhi.

Right. She had to come up with a plan. Looking around, she didn't have many options. There were only three carts in the caravan. Not daring to let go of the staff, she began working the three carts closer to one another, getting some semblance of a plan forming in her brain. After grabbing a rather thick branch from a low hanging tree, she worked it over one of the fires until the end was coated in flames. Without flinching, she tossed her makeshift torch into the carts, and watched as the straw in them began to catch first.

When she was sure the blaze was big enough, she tightened her hold on the staff and disappeared into the darkness.

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His head hurt….a lot. As he sat up slowly from the metal cot in his cell, the entire room seemed to spin around him. The air down wherever he was was chilly, and he shivered.

There were no windows. He could only assume it was night outside. The area outside of his cell was silent….in fact he wasn't even sure if a guard was posted out there. He tried to see through the bars, but all he saw was a stone hallway leading out into who-knows-what.

Fighting through his headache, he moved to the back of his stone prison and began feeling the walls for a draft, or anything else he could take advantage of, but the cell was sealed tight. He wasn't getting out anytime soon.

The distant echo of footsteps caught his attention. He returned to the cot and sat on the edge, awaiting whomever his visitor might be.

"Ah, you're awake." The wolf he could only assume was Bai Liang stopped in front of his cell door, two armed gorilla guards on either side. "I am so glad we could finally meet. I'm a huge fan."

Seeing as how he wasn't going anywhere, Po decided to make the best of his situation. "I could have just given you an autograph. No reason to lock me up."

Bai Liang barked out a sarcastic laugh before his countenance became serious. "In all honesty, Dragon Warrior, you're not the one we are after."

"Oh?"

"Yes, it's true. We are after your little tiger friend."

Po managed, somehow, to maintain his composure, but he wanted nothing more than to punch the stupid white wolf in the face. "Don't know where she is."

Bai Liang didn't seem surprised by this revelation. "See, Po, I know that. I did live with the woman for ten years. And I also know that she wouldn't return back to Shang Zhi. But see, my wolves, well they don't know her like I do."

Po was convinced that the canine was only saying this to get under his skin. But his little speech told Po that they had no idea where Tigress was, which was a good thing.

"They are so convinced, that they left for Shang Zhi a few hours ago."

Bai Liang watched the panda like a hawk, eyes narrowed, but the Dragon Warrior was doing an incredible job of maintaining his composure. On the inside, however, it felt like his chest had caved in.

"They will slaughter everyone." Bai Liang's voice dropped down to murmur. Po's grip on the bed tightened, but he managed to remain straight-faced. "Unless, of course, you tell me what you two are after."

"World Peace." Po fired back, but he was worried. Being stuck in this cell meant he couldn't help anyone, and if what Bai Liang was saying was true, the rebels of Shang Zhi didn't have much time.

Bai Liang chuckled coldly. "Well, if that is true, Dragon Warrior, I'll be sure to put it on their graves."

With that he turned away and disappeared down the hall, leaving Po completely and utterly alone.

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A/N: Lil bit of a long chapter as thanks for being patient with me.

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