On the northern tower, Shifu lowered himself from Eagle Jr.'s back and broke apart the doused beacon with a kick. Now there would never be a signal. For good measure he broke off both wheels on the cannon and let the barrel drop to the floor, rendering the weapon useless.

"Good work." He said, not just to Eagle Jr. but to his students at the other three towers. He strode to the parapet and looked to the right hand tower. Po should have infiltrated the tower to deal with the terra cotta warriors by now. With those unnatural monstrosities out of the way, Hei Nuwang would be the only remaining significant threat.

"What did Po say the next part of the plan was?" Eagle Jr. asked as he joined Shifu at the parapet.

"Take out the squads at the base of this tower and the western tower." Shifu pointed down below. The front gates stood between these two towers, so a team of five soldiers apiece stood at the base of the towers, guarding the only conventional entrance into the fortress. Dealing with the squad at the western tower was Monkey's job. Shifu could see his tail curling as the primate started to climb over the parapet.

Shifu himself stepped at the very edge of the parapet, looking out over the pavement far below. Looking like black dots from his perspective, five soldiers were standing in an uneven circle right beneath him. He raised his staff, giving the signal for Monkey to make his move. Monkey leapt right off the top of the western tower and plummeted towards the men below.

Shifu chose a more careful approach.

With his feet half on, half off the edge, the grandmaster started to tilt. "Uh, master?" Eagle Jr. asked, looking like Shifu had gone senile. "What are you doing?"

Shifu smirked without looking at him. "Inner Peace gives me the power to do more than just mess with Po's head."

He tilted forward and started running.

Shifu nearly smiled, imagining the look on Eagle Jr's feathered face as he watched the red panda sprint down the side of the northern tower. It was one thing to see one run up a wall. The best master could reach fifty feet before the pull of the earth brought him back down again. To see one run down is something else. The wind ruffled Shifu's fur and bent his ears back as he descended. His eyes were locked dead ahead, or rather down, but his sensitive ears could hear Monkey break his fall on one of the soldiers and beginning to dispatch the rest. A second later, Shifu was upon his own targets. Five feet above their heads, he pushed himself off the wall and dropkicked the nearest soldier. He landed on the ground as lightly as a feather as the other four began to react to the sudden attack. Shifu's reaction was faster. His staff swept the nearest soldier's legs from under him. As his body fell to the ground Shifu kicked him in the chest and sent him flying into the comrade behind him. The fourth swung his sword, shaving the tips of the hairs on Shifu's tail. Shifu's retaliation was swift and harsh. As the fourth soldier collapsed with a bruised skull, the red panda swiped the axe from the fifth's claws and then swung the staff towards his head. The blow was so vicious that the helmet shattered.

Shifu stretched his limbs and looked to see how Monkey was doing. The red panda chuckled. Monkey had a head start, and yet he hadn't even dispatched his fourth soldier. We need to have a talk about greater speed.


Hei Nuwang and Izumi reached the entrance to the throne room, where two guards stood silently. "Leave us." The panther said coldly. The soldiers obeyed without a word, and Hei Nuwang pushed the massive doors open.

She swallowed as her purple eyes fell upon the girl. Nuwa, or Su as she was now called, lay still on the ornate table in the centre of the throne room. Her eyes were closed, but Hei Nuwang remembered their colour. They were like clear blue seawater on a warm summer's day. They were like pure dark sapphires cleaved in two. They were just like Nuwa's eyes. They were Nuwa's eyes. Hei Nuwang hadn't possessed the courage to look into them the entire time Su had been in her clutches, for she hadn't wanted to confirm what she now knew to be the truth. Her mother had been reborn inside that little girl, and her past self may not have entirely disappeared.

Hei Nuwang turned to Izumi. "Wait outside."

"Yes, my lady." Izumi stepped back outside. Hei Nuwang pushed the doors closed and slowly made her way to the table. The child slept on, showing no acknowledgement of her presence. Hei Nuwang stroked her head between the ears. Perhaps it was better this way. She didn't want to know how her mother felt about her actions nine hundred years ago. Or maybe she already knew but didn't want to face it. Yes, that was the truth, Hei Nuwang realised to her despair. She'd known it since the creature confronted her in the prison. She'd seen the truth in the creature's eyes.

Mother knew. And now she blames me for her death.

"It wasn't my fault." She whispered. Su merely stirred before settling again. "It wasn't my fault." She repeated. All she'd wanted was bring true balance to the universe, which was only possible by unifying the realms and renderings all beings equal. She'd known that billions would die of course, but if it meant the strong and truly equal would survive, then she'd been more than willing to aid the demon in his scheme to tear down the Wall of Heaven. She'd never could have foreseen her mother's sacrifice. But that had been Oogway's fault. He had the power to stop her, but he didn't. And now Hei Nuwang was going to make him pay by finishing what she'd started.

Hei Nuwang turned away from the girl. Even now, the knowledge that Su had to die for true balance to be achieved made her feel sick to her stomach. But she'd been alone with her grief for so long...

I'm tired... I just want the best for the world you created... forgive me...

Hei Nuwang returned to the doors, pulled them open a crack, and ordered Izumi to get the poison.


Po peeked out the sixth floor window of the left hand tower and saw that Shifu and Monkey had completed their tasks. So far, so good. That made three steps of the five step plan complete.

Step one: destroy alchemic stones. Step two: stop the guards from lighting the beacons. Step three: take out the soldiers guarding the front entrance. Now for step four: just wing it.

Yes, they were in fact going to just wing it. With the main defences gone, there was nothing to stop them from charging in and taking out every guard they could find. Shifu, Eagle Jr., Crane, Viper and Xian had all thought him mad when he told them, but soon warmed to the idea when he added that their first stop was going to be the prison where their friends were most likely located.

Po looked across the massive courtyard towards the right hand tower. Step four is a go... I'm coming, Tigress.

As he decided to skip looking for the front door and just climb out the window, he felt Yujin's chi stir in his stomach like hot soup. "Yujin? What's up?"

"This place..." Yujin's voice rang in his skull. "It has been changed."

"What do you mean?"

"The rooms... the different areas within the palace... they've been broken apart. It's like a stone block broken into pieces and then put back together without the glue. Hei Nuwang must have done this."

"Why would she do that?" Po asked uneasily.

"I don't know. Take care once we're in the main building, Po."

Po started to climb out the window. He had one foot over the windowsill before he felt more stirring. "Aw jeez, what's the matter now, you big chi-stirrer?"

"First, never mind the corny cheek. Second, I'm just wondering what happened to the peach tree's sealing technique."

Po froze "Say what?"

"I'm talking about the technique Oogway used to seal the Demon King in a mortal body. You'll remember that he used the chi within my mother's peach tree to do it."

"Oh, yeah." Po said, remembering the first and so far only battle where he had actually died. Thank gods he didn't remember the experience. "You probably didn't know, but the tree died and Ke-Pa returned to normal- WOAH!" Po yelled and fell back into the small storeroom as Yujin's fury hit him with the force of a cannon. He writhed on the floor, feeling like he'd just swallowed boiling water to cook the raw rice in his stomach. "Woah, WOAH! Settle down, he's dead!" He rubbed his stomach, hoping it would somehow sooth her. "I defeated him with the Hero's Chi. He's gone!"

It took a moment for Yujin's chi to fully settle. "He's dead. You are certain?"

"Yeah." Po said. What the hell was that about? "I'm sorry about the tree. I didn't know it was Nuwa's."

"Thank you. Mother and Oogway planted that tree together as a reminder of the day they first met. I take comfort in the knowledge that there is another tree growing in its place."

Po smiled and got to his feet. "Do you think we should tell Shifu and Viper that we know Su's the reincarnation of your mother?"

"Yes. The sooner we find her, the better." Yujin's chi cooled somewhat. Po could feel the guilt. "My mother's... Su's pain is my doing. If anything worse happens to her I will never forgive myself."

"Don't beat yourself up too much." Po said. He leaned on the windowsill. They still had a plan to follow, but Yujin needed to hear this while he had the chance to tell her. "So far as we know, Su had been remembering things she'd learned as Nuwa and doing cool stuff ages before you got into her head. I think all you really did was speed up the inevitable."

"... It is true that there was no guarantee that Meng Po's potion would work on a goddess..." Yujin said softly.

"And besides, she wouldn't be in this situation if that demon jerk hadn't put a hole in the Wall of Heaven and made her give up her chi to seal it. At least once we've got her back we can figure out a way to help her."

There was silence in his head and stomach as Yujin thought on Po's words. She only got a few seconds before Po stiffened.

"Wait a minute..."

Po's rotund body wasn't the only thing the warrior and the empress shared. Memories, short and vivid, flickered in his head, coming and going like leaves floating past his face. Each memory he saw, some his, some hers, became a piece in a puzzle that was quickly coming together.

"Who said anything about genocide? Oogway may have thought his precious kung fu would make a difference, but he was wrong. I will make the world a better place through unity and rebirth."

"I REFUSE TO GIVE THAT UNHOLY WITCH THE SATISFACTION OF DEFEATING ME AND DESTROYING HEI NUWANG'S PLANS TO USHER IN A UNIVERSAL CONVERGENCE!"

"The deity Meng Po placed her soul in the body of that little girl and sent her back to the Mortal Realm in the hopes of protecting the universe."

"I'm talking about the technique Oogway used to seal the Demon King in a mortal body. You'll remember that he used the chi within my mother's peach tree to do it."

"And besides, she wouldn't be in this situation if that demon jerk hadn't put a hole in the Wall of Heaven and made her give up her chi to seal it."

"You probably didn't know, but the tree died and Ke-Pa returned to normal."

The tree died and Ke-Pa returned to normal.

Po's heart seemed to stop mid-beat. Yujin's chi ran cold as she had the same revelation.

"Seals..." Po whispered, gripping the windowsill with both paws. The Peach Tree. Su's body... "Oh holy son of a bean bun."

Yujin's chi flared like ignited gunpowder, making his stomach glow. Po ignored the tingling sensation that ensued. "She would go this far for the sake of 'true balance'?" Yujin snarled.

"We need to warn Shifu." Po said as calmly as possible before jumping out the window. He landed on the pavement and took off for the opposite tower. We gotta find her... his mind screamed. We gotta find her... if we don't, the universe is screwed.


The bathhouse was deserted when Tigress slunk through the doors to hide from a passing squad of soldiers. She shut the doors just as they turned the corner and rushed through the corridor, unaware of the escaped prisoner crouched on the other side. Tigress unsheathed her claws, ready for a fight. But the footsteps faded. She was clear.

Tigress stood up and turned round to find that the large room she had entered was not in fact a bathhouse. At least not anymore. She'd assumed it to be a bathhouse based on the layout of the white fortress, but it would appear to have been converted into some kind of storeroom. Rectangular stone chests were piled in the empty shallow pit that used to be where the palace's inhabitants would bathe.

"Found you..."

Tigress stiffened. There it was again. A soft voice that sounded distant and familiar. Her instincts had been screaming that she was being followed ever since she'd escaped a grisly impalement at Hei Nuwang's hands, but now matter how many times she looked behind her she appeared to be alone. Tigress stepped away from the doors and went into her stance.

Her ear twitched. She flipped backward to avoid the doors as they were blasted from their hinges. They hit the stone chests and shattered into sharp wooden pieces. Tigress landed on a chest, glaring at the doorway. Her mouth fell open slightly and her stomach dropped.

"Long Feng?" She whispered.

The rhino... demon... whatever the hell he was now stalked into the room, glowing blue eyes fixed on the feline.

"Found you, Ember... FOUND YOU!"