Two weeks before the Jade Palace's destruction...

Lady Hei Nuwang wasn't a narcissist like many of her underlings believed.

True she always cleaned up, wore expensive dresses and checked herself in the ornamental silver mirror before every meeting. There was a reason for that, however. Her refined appearance served as a reminder that she was a noble. She was greater than them. She was the one in charge.

Today she was dressed all in black, with purple trimming separating cloth from fur. Her purple eyes took in the ornate circular room where all the important meetings took place. The round amethyst stone table had been personally constructed to seat twenty people, but today there were only five, including herself. To the right was Izumi, Japanese Bobtail cat, former second in command of the Brotherhood of Bloodstained Hands, now the new second in command of their army. She was quite a looker herself, at least on one half of her face. Amethyst had enquired about the scars on the other half the one time she was actually interested. All Izumi said was that the no-legger with lilies on her head did this to her, and she would never forget it. Hei Nuwang could relate. In fact, she was quite fond of the bobtail. Her psychosis often displayed a savagery she once shared.

Right across from Hei Nuwang was the first in command, recently appointed General Long Feng, a rhino with an impressively long horn and equally impressive muscles to match. His one arm drummed its fingers on the table, but quickly stopped when he caught her expression. He was obstinate, merciless, and dangerous, but not stupid. Hei Nuwang liked him better than that feathered cockroach, Tujiu.

The third attendee was the result of one of Sutoraiki's more successful experiments. The masked man sat in utter silence, but Hei Nuwang knew he wasn't really mute. He rarely spoke these days, unless he was spoken to. He was an intimating entity to everyone else, but for her, he was perfect. A happy reminder that her instincts on Sutoraiki's alchemic skills had been correct.

The fourth stood guard at the door. She was different than the others in that she was a good girl gone bad. Mei Ling had been the star of the same kung fu academy Master Crane had studied at before becoming a student at the Jade Palace. They had been old friends, but not since Mei Ling joined the Children of Nuwa. Or so she claimed.

Hei Nuwang stood up, her signal that the meeting was about to begin. The eyes of the attendees followed her, partly respectful, partly intimidated. Of course they were, Hei Nuwang thought with a smile like a curved dagger. They'd all seen her gift.

Speaking of which, it was time for another demonstration.

"Fellow members of the Children of Nuwa, the opportunity to settle old scores has finally come." Hei Nuwang turned to the plain black wall behind her. She put her left paw up against the cold stone. Amethyst veins grew from beneath her paw like crystal vines, spreading over the wall until they were all gazing at a perfect map of the Valley of Peace. With a finger she directed their attention to the Jade Palace at the top. "As you all know, the Jade Palace masters have interfered with our operations twice so far. First they prevented us from acquiring the medallion from the Temple of Heroes. Then they delayed our efforts to capture Ember until it was too late. Now we are about to move on the Imperial City, and no doubt the masters will interfere again. And of course, we can't have that, can we?" Her sharp ears caught the tiniest of laughs from the masked man. "General, I trust you're coming up with a strategy as we speak?"

"Of course, my lady." Long Feng leaned back in his chair and intertwined his fingers. "After reviewing the masters' track record, I highly recommend that we use stealth tactics. I will assemble a small team. They'll infiltrate the palace in the dead of night..."

"Forget stealth. I have a better idea!" Hei Nuwang leaned over the table. "Izumi, when your old boss Chibiki invaded the Jade Palace, he used an army of bandits to create a distraction while he went after the prize. Isn't that right?" Izumi nodded. "I suggest we use a similar tactic. General, I will leave you to work out the details."

Long Feng's thick grey brow furrowed. "My lady, are you sure? The Jade Palace masters have faced far worse than the likes of a small army."

Hei Nuwang planted her paws on the amethyst table. She let her malice show through her purple eyes, which glittered like her pearly white fangs. "They haven't faced anything yet."

She straightened up, pleased at the slightly shrunken shoulders and wide eyes of the attendees. The masked man, on the other hand, barely looked fazed.

"Does that mean you're coming as well?" Izumi asked after a long silence.

"Of course." Hei Nuwang almost felt sorry for what she said next. "But you on the other hand, aren't."

Outrage flashed across Izumi's half-scarred features. She leapt up from her seat. "Wha-" She took a deep breath, presumably to keep from screaming. "But my lady, why?"

Hei Nuwang sat back down and leaned her head back in exasperation that wasn't directed at the bobtail. "Because the general has an errand that needs to be run, and I need him to lead the assault on the Jade Palace. Izumi, dispatch some men to retrieve Colonel Sao from the Imperial City." The bobtail slowly sat back down. It seemed Izumi respected her enough to not protest any further. Good. "Remember, it is of great important that we take the masters alive if we can. Though the monks did their work, we might still be able to extract some small traces of Ember's chi that they missed. We need that chi if we want to keep track of Ember's movements." This was only part of the reason, but there was no need to mention that to these people. "It will make things much easier in the long-"

She stopped speaking, for the masked man had just raised his hand.

"Lady Hei Nuwang, forgive me for interrupting." He said, not sounding sorry at all. "I'm just curious. Why do you hate Ember so?"

Hei Nuwang wondered how he guessed. Perhaps it was the way she said Ember's name. She looked the masked man right in his eyeholes. "You would probably understand, but it's a long story." The masked man fell silent once again. Hei Nuwang waved her paw and the amethyst map crumbled away. "This meeting is adjourned."

Soon after she stepped through a thick wooden door into Sutoraiki's personal quarters. This second meeting did not take as long as the first. When Hei Nuwang informed Sutoraiki that he was to travel to the prison and complete his work there after the invasion, the hornet accepted the order with grace.

"I will begin packing once the work is complete." He said. "Speaking of which, it is progressing fantastically. Would you like to see?"

"Of course."

Sutoraiki led her to another door, one with three identical locks. With a ring of keys he unlocked them all and let Hei Nuwang push the door open. She giggled at what she saw. "So, what do you think?" He asked.

"Fantastic. Utterly fantastic."


Mantis had a bad feeling, and it wasn't just the bad bean buns he had that morning.

When they heard of trouble brewing at the Imperial City, they'd expected to walk into a warzone. Soldiers clashing in the streets. Innocent citizens trying to stay the heck out of the way. Devastation everywhere.

When they passed through the gates leading into the city, all they found was a warzone. Empty streets. No sign of life in any of the buildings. Devastation everywhere.

Nearly all the doors they saw had been torn apart. Windows were smashed to pieces. Some buildings had massive singed holes in the walls, others obliterated completely. There were holes bigger than Po's belly littering the pavement. Mantis had seen this level of devastation only once before, back when he had been fighting for his life in the Tower of Sacred Flame. If the cult, the so called Children of Nuwa, had indeed gotten their hands on cannons, Mantis dreaded to think what this would mean for China. Or what it meant for Emperor Xian and his family.

They were fine. They had to be.

Everyone was surely thinking the same thing, but it was Monkey who spoke first. "Where the heck is everyone?" Today he was carrying a familiar pair of Dao swords.

Perched on Monkey's shoulders, Mantis could only shrug. "Weird, huh?"

Crane tilted back the sharp metal-rimmed hat Princess Haoxin De Nushi had given him as he surveyed the ruined streets. "Maybe the battle's moved inward. Towards the palace." Mantis noticed that he hadn't mentioned that it didn't explain where the citizens went.

Monkey pulled out the map Ox and Croc had given them. He unrolled it and read in silence for a moment. His eyes narrowed and he traced a path through the sketched streets with a finger. "The quickest route to the palace goes right past the HQ. Lucky us."

"We can pop in and find Mei Ling." Mantis said. "But what about the Emperor?"

"He's surrounded by the best guards in the country, and he's got Master Eagle. Jr. by his side." Crane said. "He's a pretty good fighter himself. He'll be okay."

Crane was worried about Mei Ling. Mantis could see it in his slightly widened eyes and slanted brows. His expression hadn't changed once since they'd reached the city. Now that Mantis was thinking about her, didn't Mei Ling have a kid? "Hey, she's going to be okay." The bug said. "We'll go check on her first if you want."

Looking grateful, Crane nodded.

Monkey rolled up the map. "We'd best keep our eyes and ears open. Just in case we're not really alone."

Mantis hadn't expected it to be that simple. All in all, their plan was to stroll through the seemingly empty streets of the city, stop by the HQ to find Mei Ling and the information she'd discovered, then continue on to the palace to rescue the royal family. Then again it always seemed simple at first. It was decided soon after they started their trek that they would stick to the alleys as much as they could. The big streets weren't safe, even though they were empty, for there was still a chance that they could be spotted. It was for that same reason that instead of flying, Crane walked vigilantly alongside them.

In less than an hour they reached their first obstacle; a tall narrow building had been knocked clean off its foundations by cannon fire and was now leaning haphazardly against another building. Part of the wall had fallen away, forming a pile of rubble that blocked their exit out of the alley.

Monkey made a noise of impatience and pulled out a coin. "Okay, let's toss. Heads, we go through it, tails, we go over it."

Crane's expression was deadpan. "Really?"

Monkey ignored him. The coin flipped three times in the air then fell back into his hand. The result was tails.

The leaning building looked incredibly unsafe, so they chose to climb the shorter building supporting it. Mantis kept a tight grip on the fur of Monkey's shoulder as he scaled up the outer wall, using the windowsills as handholds. Crane flew up alongside them and reached the roof first. When Monkey and Mantis made it, they saw a sight for sore eyes.

In the centre of a paved square right below them was a massive three storey building with brown walls, a green curved roof and a large burned hole where a window would have been. Monkey pulled out the map and read it once more. He grinned. "That's it. Our first stop."

"And there's our second." Mantis pointed to the royal palace in the distance. To an extent it resembled the Jade Palace, but was ruby red instead of green, and ten times wider.

"Oh crap." Crane said.

"Yeah, yeah. It's a long walk, I know." Mantis said with a roll of his eyes.

"Not oh crap that!" Crane pointed. "Oh crap them!"

Monkey and Mantis looked. On the flat roof of a grey stone building near the other side of the square, so far away that neither of them had known they were there until Crane pointed them out, were four or five black armoured soldiers and a big black cannon.

Uh oh.

They heard the distant poof as it fired.

"Run for it!" Crane shoved them forward and took flight. Mantis held on tight as Monkey leapt from the roof and onto the next building. They felt the explosion behind them before they heard it, a burning hot blast of air that nearly knocked them on their faces. Almost instantly they heard the cannon fire again. "Great! More of them!" Crane yelled. "Head for the HQ, and I'll take out as many as I can!"

He flew off. Breathless, Monkey rushed to the edge and leapt at the next rooftop, even as the next cannonball punched a hole in the tiles they had just been standing on. "Keep moving!" Mantis hollered.

"Right in the ear, pal!" Monkey hollered back as another cannonball whistled over their heads in a blaze of crimson sparks. Another tore apart the building behind them as he ran.

"Sorry!"

Each rooftop they crossed circled the square, bringing them closer to the HQ yet at the same time getting them nowhere. Now they were hearing a cannon firing every three seconds, an explosion following each one. Eventually Mantis's ears started ringing. Monkey leapt onto the roof of a wide building, just as another cannonball ripped a gaping, smoking hole in the tiles ahead of them. Without hesitating, Monkey leapt over the burning pit and made for the building on the other side; a ten storey tall pagoda that stood right across from the HQ. He leapt onto the side, grabbed the windowsill and pulled himself inside.

They found themselves on the fourth floor of a multi storey hall much like the interior of the Tower of Sacred Flame. Before Mantis could begin to make comparisons, the opposite wall disintegrated in a shower of wood and sparks. Not this again, Mantis thought. Then the all too familiar situation gave him an idea. "Monkey, head to the top!"

"What?"

"Remember what happened last time?"

"Wha- ah! Good idea! Even though you stole it from Tigress!"

"Just shut up and climb!"

The stairs weren't far from where they'd climbed in, and Monkey quickly started making his way upwards. By the time they reached the top the relentless cannons had blown several holes in the pagoda. A fire had started on one of the lower floors. Monkey's fur was blackened from soot, and one glance at his own body told Mantis that he wasn't any better.

The room at the top was a complete mess. The wooden furniture had been completely destroyed. Splintered wood and small fires were everywhere. A third of the wall and ceiling was gone, and they had a clear view of the square and the five of six cannons trying to kill them. They saw no sign of Crane.

Another cannonball struck them and the entire building shook. Down below there was a tremendous cracking sound, and the pagoda crashed down by one floor. The violent jolt knocked Mantis from Monkey's shoulder and he hit the floor back first. Stupefied from the impact, Mantis could only stare up at the big hole where part of the wall and ceiling should be. In swooped a dishevelled bird he recognised.

"I managed... to take out two of the cannons!" Crane was panting. "But there's too many! We've got to get out of here."

Right then, the pagoda began to tilt.

Mantis quickly regained his sense and stood up, his four legs helping him keep balance on the rapidly steepening floor. Wood and flames slid past him, tumbling from the big hole. That was when Mantis realised that they were tilting towards the HQ. In particular the big hole in the side.

Lucky them.

When the pagoda was nearly horizontal and Mantis and Monkey were sliding towards the opening, the bug saw their chance. "Jump now!" he yelled.

They pushed away from the floor. Crane glided beside them. They soared through one hole and into the other, reaching the third floor of the HQ and sliding across the floor. Behind them the pagoda hit the ground and was reduced to burning timber.

As the three warriors leaned against the wall farthest from the hole, Mantis laughed softly. "Smashing."

Monkey laughed with him. Crane rolled his eyes. "The cannon fire has stopped. They must think we were in there. Let's try and keep it that way." He got up and was the first to notice the open door leading deeper into the HQ. "Come on. An old friend is waiting."