Inside the spacious cave, lit by a dozen silver candles and covered in silk cushions, Mengxiang fulfilled her promise.

She sat on a thick pale cushion, gazing at Shifu without emotion at he sat down on another cushion before her. Neither spoke right away. Mengxiang's gaze never wavered. Shifu silently reciprocated until he asked his first question. "You told me the leader of the Children of Nuwa is your sister. Who is she?"

"Her name is Hei Nuwang. She did not found the order. It was originally a cult bent on world domination through fear until she took over and altered its goals. That was two hundred years ago."

"How old are you and your sisters?"

"I am the first born. Three thousand years. Hei Nuwang and Ember were created after. We have all lived for a long time. Even longer than your late master."

"How many are you?"

"Hundreds, but most left for the Spirit World after the tragedy. That terrible day was what started it all."

"What tragedy?"

Mengxiang swallowed. "Even after so long, it hurts to talk about it. It would be better if I showed you."

Before Shifu could question her trustworthiness, he already felt her strange power seep through his eyes. The world turned white for an instant, and when it returned it was different, like he was looking through a very short spyglass. He heard Mengxiang speak, but did not see her. "Trust me, Shifu. I promised you answers, and you shall have them."


There were only three children left now. Hei Nuwang, Ember, and Mengxiang herself. Everyone else was gone. Two decades had passed since the tragedy, but the grief still cut into them all like a newly sharpened knife. Even the gentle golden sunset could not soothe their broken hearts.

On a naturally hewn stone bridge between two cliffs, Mengxiang and Hei Nuwang watched over the Valley of Peace. In the village, short-lived mortals went about their lives, neither knowing or caring about what happened twenty years ago. Mengxiang seethed at the sight of them. How dare they overcome their grief so quickly while the immortals still suffered. How dare they?

Mengxiang looked to Hei Nuwang, and saw the hatred in her lovely features. She had made no secret of her bitterness towards the mortals, though her idea of dealing with it was far more morbid. Ever since the tragedy, she'd always been so angry, and Ember wasn't helping.

They felt a strong heat coming from their left. Ember was striding across the bridge towards them, clad in a dragon helmet and an emerald green dress that had its skirt cut into draping wide strips that showed her black clothed legs. She always completely concealed her appearance in public, having felt that as the Dragon Empress, hiding her face was safer. Ember stopped some distance from them, her strips fluttering in the breeze.

"I've just spoken to Master Oogway. The village is close to complete recovery after the massacre."

"Unbelievable." Hei Nuwang growled. "How can you even give him the time of day after what happened?"

"Your grudge is unjustified." Ember replied coolly. "He helped save us, in the end."
"Not all of us." Mengxiang said.

"None of this would have happened if he hadn't gotten involved with her!" Hei Nuwang shot the Jade Palace a filthy look. "I knew he was trouble right from the start."

"Oh. He was the trouble."

Hei Nuwang's purple eyes flashed. "I do not appreciate your tone!"

Ember raised a shaking black-gloved fist in response. "You know Oogway did everything he could to save her, and yet you still use him as a blasted scapegoat!"

"Well, it wasn't good enough! He and his precious kung fu are weak! Weak, just like every other mortal who was so pathetic and helpless that mother had to give her life to save their worthless hides!"

Mengxiang gaped at what Ember said next. "You're a coward!"

Hei Nuwang was stunned. "You dare..."

"You are wrong about Oogway, and you're too great a coward to admit it! Continue wallowing in your prejudices if it makes you feel better, but I will have no part of it! Goodbye, sister!"

Ember vanished in a red flash, leaving Mengxiang to watch Hei Nuwang fume.


"That was the last time Hei Nuwang and Ember spoke to each other. Hei Nuwang went to the Palace of the Body and began working on her plans. She never told me what she did in there. Perhaps she knew I wouldn't understand. Ember went to the Palace of the Mind, where with the Yetis of Shambhala she began utilising the power of science and knowledge to aid the mortal race when the time came. As was for myself, I wish I could say that I was as clear minded as Ember was back then, but I wasn't. Though I never wished harm on the mortals, I resented them for not being strong enough to protect themselves. In particular I blamed Oogway for failing to prevent the tragedy. You can imagine my shock when, nine centuries years later, I discovered that Ember had fallen in love with a mortal and conceived a child. Like an idiot I confronted her. I reminded her of what the mortals' weakness had cost us. I urged her to sever ties with the people who caused our mother's death and return to us, but she wouldn't listen. I was completely at a loss. My powers are ineffective against my own kind, so I could not understand what she saw in them. More than anything the thought of losing her terrified me. You know what can happen to one's judgement when they're afraid."


Is Ember out of her mind?!

What on earth is she thinking, consorting with mortals to such an extent? And that child... that half mortal... what is she playing at?

In an old shack outside the city where Ember currently resided, Mengxiang paced endlessly. If only she could enter Ember's mind, understand what was going on inside that helmet. What was she thinking?

The door creaked open, swaying precariously on its single hinge. Hei Nuwang stepped inside and shut it behind her. Mengxiang had sent the message right after her confrontation with Ember.

"What is this I hear?" Hei Nuwang asked immediately. "Ember has conceived a hybrid with a mortal?"

Mengxiang stared at the filthy green wall. "Yes."

"And what did she say when you confronted her?"

"She has no intention of abandoning her family and it is none of my business."

She heard the door fall completely away from the frame. "I knew it. I knew it the moment mother created her, that woman..." She took a deep breath. "You are the first born. How could you have let her go this far astray?"

Mengxiang couldn't answer. Hei Nuwang stepped closer to her.

"She has brought dishonour and imbalance upon us. The remaining Children of Nuwa must come together and act to cleanse ourselves of this sin."

Mengxiang kept her eyes on the wall. "What do you mean, Nuwang?"

Hei Nuwang smoothed the feathers on the side of her head tenderly. "You don't understand. You can read minds, but you can't understand them. It has always been this way." Mengxiang looked at her. She was right. Of course she was right. No wonder talking to Ember had failed. Hei Nuwang's deep purple eyes looked straight into hers. "Trust me, sister. Help me deal with this matter. We will restore balance."


"You should know that we do not die as easily as mortals. We are almost impossible to kill through mortal means, and our powers are greater than even the greatest of kung fu masters. And I already told you that powers such as mine are ineffective against my own kind. But Hei Nuwang had a special tool for that. A crystal dagger of her own making that would temporarily halt the chi flow in a Child of Nuwa, taking away their powers and rendering them mortal. That night, Hei Nuwang and I formed a plan. Ember's family was rich and powerful, and had many guards to protect them. But Hei Nuwang had recruited two treacherous men to her cause; Tujiu and Long Feng. Judging from the look on your face, you are familiar with those people. With their inside knowledge and my illusions, we would fake a small invasion. While the guards were focused on fighting an enemy much smaller in number than it appeared, Hei Nuwang and I would steal Ember right from under their noses. With the dagger Ember would be susceptible to my powers. I would erase her memories of the mortals she had lived with, and we would have our sister back. We set the plan in motion two nights later. I see the look in your eyes, Shifu. I can see you putting two and two together. You already know how this ends..."


As they strode hurriedly through the lower floor of the building Ember and her child was located, Mengxiang wondered how on earth was Ember going to forgive her. Then she realised that she didn't need to worry about that. Soon Ember would remember nothing of this incident. As long as everything went to plan.

Speaking of which, Mengxiang had a feeling that something had gone wrong. She smelled burning wood. Starting a fire hadn't been part of the plan. In fact she could see smoke starting to gather on the ceiling. Even though the smoke couldn't harm her or Hei Nuwang, Mengxiang pulled the hood of her black cloak farther over her face. A small, immature part of her felt exhilaration at what she was doing. Nothing this exciting had happened to her in centuries. Hei Nuwang must be feeling the same, for there was a grin on her face as they got closer to the room where Ember was hiding. Mengxiang wondered why Ember wasn't using her powers to quell this 'invasion'. Perhaps she was putting her trust in the mortals to take care of this. Mengxiang wouldn't trust them to take care of housekeeping.

They stopped dead. They had reached the final corridor. In the room at the end, Ember was waiting out the attack. Her husband was in the throne room with his father. Aside from the baby, she was alone. This was it. They were one corridor away from saving Ember from her own folly.

Hei Nuwang started forward, and Mengxiang went to follow. In her mind she spoke a small apology to her wayward sister, hoping that she would understand that this was for her own good.

Hei Nuwang held out a paw, stopping Mengxiang in her tracks. "You should leave, sister. You don't want to watch this."

Amethyst pillars shot up between them like bars, separating the two. Crystal dagger in hand, Hei Nuwang turned and strode all the way to the door. She opened it, stepped inside, and shut the door behind her.

All the while Mengxiang stared, the truth striking her like one of Hei Nuwang's amethyst pillars through the chest. She stepped back from the purple bars, pulling the hood back, then pulling off the cloak entirely. She had the same reaction she did when she learned of their mother's death nine hundred years ago.

"What have I done?"

Ember's Yeti general. Her husband. Her father in law. The closest soldiers. Anyone who could get to her in time. Mengxiang sent her mental message to them all as she rushed back the way she'd came, leaving the cloak Hei Nuwang had given her in the smoke-filled corridor.


"You know how it feels, don't you, Shifu? To betray someone you love?"

When Shifu was brought back to the present, he saw Mengxiang's anguish. "That was the last time I saw Hei Nuwang, and she wasted no time in carrying out her true plot. I did everything I could, but it was already too late." She tilted her head. "Shifu... are you... crying?"

Shifu quickly wiped his eyes, surprised at his own emotional response. "I... I'm just... understanding Ember a little better."

"Ember was the nickname our mother gave her. I trust you know her true name by now."

"I... oh gods... how am I going to tell the others? How am I going to tell Xian?"

"The truth. But that's for another time."

Shifu took a deep breath, forcing down the sorrow in his heart. "So what happened afterward?" He knew Xian's side of the story, but wanted to hear what Mengxiang had to say.

"I met the general in the entrance hall as I was leaving. He smashed thought the amethyst bars with no effort, but Hei Nuwang was gone by the time we reached Ember's room. And Ember... she was lying on the floor... she..." Mengxiang trembled and sobbed. "At first I didn't recognise her, and when I did, I thought she was dead. But without her natural immunity to my power, I could feel her pain. In her body and her heart. Though the dagger had rendered her vulnerable to her own element, it still would not kill her. The sight of her was too much. I ran. I ran until I could run no further. And then I wandered. I wandered for weeks. I could do nothing else but think. Think about what I'd done and loathe myself for it. I found this village. Over time they accepted me, and I accepted them in return, and then I came to understand."

"Understand what?"

"Why she chose you over us."