Disclaimer: I own nuttin. Get off my back.

AN: Splee, another update miracles DO happen.

00000000000000000000000000

We made it back to the main camp in one piece. Ling Tong was miserable, partly because the carriage that housed Sun Quan on the way here now housed Ling Cao's corpse, which was discovered. Thankfully he had NOT been decapitated or disembowled, merely stabbed, but every now and then I grabbed Ling Tong's shoulder to keep him from attacking Gan Ning.

"Tong, please, will you stop?" I asked, growing weary of restraining him every 10 seconds. "Quan said that if he catches you two fighting, he's charging you of treason and kicking you out of Wu."

"SO?" Ling Tong said angrily.

"So, you're my best friend and I don't want you kicked out of Wu! Who the hell am I gonna hang out with if something happens to you!" I said, just as angry.

"Sorry..." Ling Tong muttered.

I smiled. "That's alright. Listen, there are ways to get back at Gan Ning WITHOUT getting kicked out of Wu."

"Like what?"

"Well, for one, find out what makes him angry, jealous, ect. If you can figure out what he hates the most, and keep pummeling him with it... then his reaction'll be revenge enough."

"...you wanna help me out with that?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Well, for one, you could repeat what you just said..."

"SABOTAGE!" I screamed, causing Tong to jump and everyone around us to look over. "Make him angry! Piss him off! How many times do I HAVE to say it?"

"Shang Xiang, you are a friggen genius! How do you think of this stuff?" Ling Tong said happily.

I shrugged. "Well, y'know, it takes careful planning and consider--" I was interrupted by my friend as he went racing off towards the front of the troops, probably to ask about Gan Ning's weaknesses.

So much for being a genius.

000000000000000

Once we got back to Wu, it was very late at night. I put all my confused thoughts about Ling Tong, Gan Ning, wars, fighting, and all that to the back of my head as I climbed into my nice soft bed. "Man, this feels good," I said out loud, enjoying the quiet, peaceful tranquility in my room. For once in my life, I wished I didn't have all these large weapons on my walls, especially when one is trying to remove all memories of the battle from their head.

I sighed and rolled over, soon drifting off into a peaceful slumber... which was interrupted by a bang on my door. "Shang Xiang, open up! It's me, Ling Tong!"

"Alright, come on in," I said, sitting up. Ling Tong came in, looking sad. "Hey. You okay?" he asked, sitting down at the foot of my bed.

"Yeah, just a little tired. Notice how I was sleeping," I replied. "How're you doing?"

"I'm alright. On the way back when I wasn't trying to kill Gan Ning I was thinking about my dad... and, well, I figured he wouldn't want me to be down in the dumps about him dying and all. He'd want me to keep fighting and become a better general than he was."

I smiled. "That's the way to think about it. If you try to stay cheerful, it's less painful then being a sob story about it. Look at your cousins, for example. Xiao Qiao is a little ray of sunshine regardless of what happens; while poor Da's still crying her eyes out about Ce."

"Shang Xiang, that's a little harsh. You know as well as any of us that Da was completely obsessed over your brother."

"I know... but seeing her crying every time she hears the word 'Sun' or the word 'Ce' gets kind of annoying after a while, since when I see HER crying about my brother, it bums the hell out of me, too."

"Yeah, well, I understand completely NOW... anyway, I'm sorry for coming in here so early, I was just kinda lonely." Ling Tong said, turning to leave.

"No problem," I said. "Good night."

"Good night, Shang Xiang. Sorry I woke you up." Tong left my room and I rolled over to go back to sleep.

Unfortunately Tong's visit robbed me of any intention I had of sleeping, and I got up and wearily glanced out the window. My large room had a large window, and the part I loved most about my room was the view of the Chang Jiang river, especially when the sun was rising. Now, the sun was still down, and although I didn't mind cheering Tong up I wished he could have come a little later.

That was when my eyebrow raised. What, or who, was that massive ship docked in the river? It wasn't a Wu ship, but it didn't look like a Wei or Shu ship either. My imagination kicked into overdrive as I imagined an unknown enemy force invading us in our sleep, and I ran outside my room, in my sleeping clothes none the less, and raced to the door of the person I KNEW was still wide awake.

"Tong! Ling Tong, let me in!" I hissed, knocking on the door. Ling Tong opened the door, already having undressed and still looking sad. "Huh? Oh, hey, Shang Xia-- what the hell are you wearing?"

I looked down at my attire and blushed furiously. Boy was I glad there was no one else around. "I could say the same thing, Mr. Underwear, and that's not important. Do you have a view of the river from your room?"

"No, why?" Ling Tong asked, averting his eyes away from the obvious.

"BECAUSE, there's a huge ship I don't recognize just docked out there! Come on, I'll show you!" I said, now getting worried.

"Alright, I'm coming," Tong said, reluctantly pulling his pants on and following after me. "Oh, and Shang Xiang, when we get to your room, put your shorts back on," he said, laughing a little. My face got even more red. "They came off when I was sleeping! I swear!"

When we got back to my room, I pointed out the ship to Ling Tong and while he was looking at it, I pulled a pair of pants on. (DW5 pants) Ling Tong turned around. "Shang Xiang, I dunno WHAT that ship is, but it's probably nothing to worry about. Besides, it's too early and I wanna go to bed," he said.

"What are you talking about? You woke me up! So go get dressed and we're gonna go see what that ship is!"

"Oh no we are NOT, it's probably something bad and I'm gonna get killed! No! I refuse!" Ling Tong said, folding his arms with a scowl.

"Quit being such a pansy," I said, pulling a top I hadn't worn for a while out of my dresser and pulling it on over my night shirt. (DW3 top) I sat down and laced up my red shoes (DW4) and got up. "C'mon, let's go!" (AN: No, she's not supposed to match. Think of how silly she looks here.)

"Then I'm putting some clothes on. I'm not going down in history as the general who saved Wu in his underwear," Ling Tong said, heading back to his room. I rolled my eyes. Men are idiots.

000000000000000000000

"Alright, let's go," I said, dragging Ling Tong outside the castle.

"If you're done dislocating my arm, I could probably walk on my own," Ling Tong complained, rubbing his arm.

"Sorry. C'mon, let's go find that ship and find out what it's up to," I said, and we raced off.

The ship was quite large, so it couldn't be one of the smaller Shu ships; yet, it wasn't big enough to be one of the Imperial ones the Wei navy deployed. In fact, the design looked completely different than any I'd ever seen before.

"Well, only one thing to do," I said, and, as quietly as I could, I stepped onto the ship.

"Tong, c'mon," I hissed, but Tong refused. "Uh uh. Something bad's gonna happen, and I don't wanna die, or worse, risk losing that promotion Lord Sun Quan's bound to give me, so how 'bout YOU be the hero, and I'll stand watch?"

"And you call yourself a man," I scoffed. "Fine, have it your way. But when I save the Wu forces in the dead of night, and my brother finds out tough guy Ling Tong was outside the ship combing his pretty hair, it'll be pretty obvious who gets the promotion."

"Fine, I'll come with you... but if I die, I blame you!" Ling Tong complained, reluctantly getting on board the ship.

We walked on board the main platform, until we got to the cabin entrance. "For a ship, that's a big cabin," I commented.

"Yeah it is. I can't believe how big it-- do you hear that?" Tong asked, interrupting himself.

"N-no... what should I be hearing..?" I asked, taking a step closer to Ling Tong. Although he could be a wimp at times, I trusted him to perservere and make sure whatever the hell in there didn't kill me. (I'm screwed.)

"Shang Xiang... we better get outta here..." Tong said, gripping my arm.

"Y-yeah.. let's go, before whoever's in there figures out he has guests!" I said, turning to leave.

Suddenly the snoring ceased. Then footsteps followed. The footsteps got closer, and closer... and closer... terrified, me and Ling Tong realized the only thing seperating us from the thing in that cabin was a wooden wall, and apparently that made Tong feel about as safe as I did.

"RUN FOR IT!" Tong screamed, and we turned around to run for our lives, when... the door swung open, revealing a tired and confused Gan Ning.

"What the hell?" Gan Ning said, messing up his hair, which seemed a lot flatter than usual. He glanced at me, who was blankly staring at his tanned, muscular, and completely naked body, half of me unable to tear my virgin eyes away. "Oh, man, sorry you had to see that," he said, grabbing his pants and pulling them on over his... thing. Yeah.

"I wasn't looking, I swear," I lied, knowing Ling Tong was probably furious right now.

"YOU? This is YOUR ship?" Ling Tong screamed, me tugging on his arm to get him to quiet down before he woke the whole god damned kingdom up.

"Yeah. It ain't a friggen castle, but it sure gets the job done," Gan Ning said. "So, any particular reason you two decided to visit me in the middle of the night? I was doing a thing called... sleeping? Maybe you've heard of it be-- OW!" he yelled, as Ling Tong thumped him on the head with his nunchakus.

"SHUT UP! Who'd you kill to take this ship? It sure as hell isn't a Wu ship! Poor Shang Xiang here was having NIGHTMARES because she thought we were being INVADED! And it turns out to be friggen YOU!" Ling Tong said angrily.

"Hey!" I said angrily. "NIGHTMARES? What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm with her! What the hell ARE you talking about? I built this ship with my own two hands! And o'course it don't look like a Wu ship, it's a custom design!" Gan Ning said angrily. "And that stupid thing of yours just hurt my head!"

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE I CARE?" Tong screamed. "YOU KILLED MY FATHER, YOU SON OF A BITCH! I SHOULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW, AND I WOULD, EXCEPT YOU'RE IN YOUR UNDERWEAR AND I DON'T WANT TO TOUCH YOU!"

"Tong, pleeeeeease, shut up!" I whined, clinging to his arm in a desperate attempt to calm him down.

"Shang Xiang, get OFF! Tong said angrily, trying to shake me off.

"No! You're gonna wake the whole damn kingdom up! Shut up!"

"So what? I don't care!" he said angrily, and furiously shook me off.

"Whoa!" I yelped, and since I lost my balance thanks to stupid Ling Tong, I fell backwards into the cold waters of the Chang Jiang river.

I surfaced, cursing Tong with my every breath-- or in this case, sputter. I grabbed the edge of the boat to keep from drowning (even though the water wasn't very deep- maybe up to my elbows) and climbed back on.

"Sorry, Shang Xiang! Are you okay?" Tong asked, running over to me.

"Yeah... no thanks to YOU, you stupid half-wit!" I screamed, smacking him on the head and knocking him overboard.

"Aaaaaah!" Tong wailed, falling into the water.

Gan Ning whistled. (at me) "Ooh, beautiful and fiesty. I like that in a woman."

I glared at him for the fiesty remark, then stopped. "You really think I'm beautiful?" I asked, blushing a little.

"Hey, I'm not gonna lie to you, I think you're gorgeous," Gan Ning replied, winking at me. Before I could say anything, Ling Tong yelled, "Uh, hello! Can you two stop FLIRTING long enough to get me outta this water?"

"Why can't you get out yourself?" Gan Ning yelled.

"Because I, uh, have a bad leg," Tong lied.

"Yeah, whatever!" Ning answered. "Tough it out!"

"SHUT UP! SHANG XIANG WILL SAVE ME!"

"Shang Xiang who?" I retorted.

"SHANG XIAAAAAANG! COME ON! YOU KNOW I CAN'T SWIM!" Tong screamed.

I finally pitied my friend and yelled, "Just stand up!"

Tong stopped thrashing about and stood upright. "What's this going to... aw, never mind." He stopped when he realized the water went up to his waist.

A shriek of horror emerged from the castle at that moment, so loud I could hear it from where we were standing.

"That sounds like Da," Tong commented. "Or Xiao. I can never really tell their shrieks apart."

"Whatever it is, it sounds like trouble," I said dryly. I leaned over and helped pull Tong out of the water. "C'mon, let's go..."

I turned to Gan Ning. "Are you coming?" He shook his head. "Naw, I'll just get in the way. I'll just leave you two kids alone out here." He went back inside the cabin in the ship and shut the door.

"C'mon..." Tong said, glaring after Gan Ning's diappearing figure. "Someone might have gotten hurt..."

"HEY! Wait up! It's dark out here! I can't see!" I complained.

"Take my hand then, Princess!" Tong snapped. I could tell he was quite irritated at the moment, probably at the new knowledge that Gan Ning was residing in Wu. I fumbled around in the darkness and grabbed his hand.

"Don't let go of me," I said, holding his hand tight.

"Why would I?" he retorted, but he pulled me closer to him. Even though he was pissed off, he couldn't be nasty to me. Ha.

00 000000000000000000

Tong and I raced inside the Great Hall, where a couple armored guards were standing guard. "Hey! What happened?" Tong asked, letting go of me.

"Lord Ling Tong, Lady Sun, I'm afraid to say there's been a tragedy. Lord Zhou has passed away."

"WHAT? Zhou Yu is DEAD?" I asked incredulously. "He was fine 24 hours ago!"

"My apologies. I mean the second Lord Zhou. Zhou Yin, I believe his name is."

I turned to Ling Tong, who had a look of confusion on his face. Suddenly it hit me, and apparently it hit me too, since we both looked at each other and said, in unison, "The kid!"

We thanked the guard and raced up the flights of stairs, where hysterical sobbing could be heard. "Come on! That sounds like Xiao!" Tong yelled.

"Here we go, this is Xiao's room," I yelled, and before I could yank the door open, Tong grabbed my shoulder. "You can't just barge in there!" he protested, proceeding to knock on the door.

A grave-looking Da Qiao opened the door. "Shang Xiang... Ling Tong... why are you two up so early?"

"Da, what happened?" Tong asked, grabbing Da's shoulders. "We heard a scream from outside! Is Xiao okay?"

"Come this way," she simply replied, and walked down the hallway inside the large room. Tong and I exchanged glances and followed after her.

In a smaller, sealed-away section of the room, Xiao was sitting on a chair, crying. Zhou Yu was standing behind Xiao, rubbing her shoulders and talking to a few medics.

"Oh! Lady Sun, we weren't expecting you," one medic said, bowing to me. Apparently he didn't notice Ling Tong. "What happened?" I asked.

Xiao let out a sniff. "Shang Xiang, it's horrible! I went to check on Yin, and... and he wasn't breathing! I called for Lord Zhou Yu but there was n-nothing he could do!" she said, finishing her sentence with more crying.

I knelt down next to Xiao and gave her a huge hug. She buried her face in my shoulder to try and muffle her crying. "It's all gonna be okay, Xiao," I said, releasing my friend for lack of words to say.

I looked at the medic again. "Any idea of what was wrong with him?" I asked.

"Lord Zhou Yu and I were just discussing that. Apparently Lady Qiao states that there was nothing wrong with the child when she put him to bed, but we think he could have had a fever and perhaps Lady Qiao didn't notice it. Babies can develop fevers quite quickly, and unfortunately the illnesses can become quite severe in a few hours if not treated," the medic said.

Xiao sniffed. "I never knew that," she said sadly.

I felt an arm wrap around my shoulder, and I looked up to see Ling Tong. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah... I'm alright," I said. "I feel so bad for Xiao. Losing your own child probably feels like losing a little piece of yourself, I guess..."

"I wouldn't know. Maybe someone as young as Xiao isn't cut out to be a mother yet," Tong said, keeping his voice lowered so he wouldn't be overheard.

"A 16-year-old sure wouldn't be as responsible with an infant as a grown woman would, I agree," I said, leaning my head on Ling Tong's chest. "I'm exhausted. It's been a long night."

"You want to go back to bed?" Tong asked.

"Nah... I could probably stay awake for a little while longer," I replied. "If I fall asleep, you'll carry me back up to my room, riiight?" I added teasingly.

"You bet I will," Tong replied with a grin. My eyes wandered over toward where Da was standing, and our eyes met momentarily. She winked at me, apparently having noticed that Tong's arm was still wrapped around my shoulders. I shot her a death look.

Xiao sniffed. "Th-thanks for coming, guys... you can go back to bed if you w-want. I don't want t-to keep you..." she said sadly.

"I'm staying with you," Da said firmly. "Me too," I replied. "We can sleep in here," Tong added.

Xiao smiled happily at us. "Th-thanks, guys..."

"Come, Xiao Qiao.. let us go to bed," Zhou Yu said. Although me and him very rarely saw eye-to-eye, he looked like he had aged 10 years in the last few hours, and I appricated the fact that he was being so kind to Xiao.

Tong let me go and sat down on the long couch, looking tired. "I'm just going to take a nap," he said, yawning. "Wake me up if something happens."

I sat down next to him and rested my head against his shoulder. "Me too. I'm just as tired as you are."

Da sat down next to me and also yawned. "You don't mind, right, Shang Xiang?" she said, rubbing her eyes.

"Naw... go ahead," I said, not having been aware of how exhausted I was. Tong wrapped his arm around my shoulder, probably to comfort me, and I fell asleep in his lap. Da collapsed on top of my back and before long we were all sleeping in a big pile.

00000000000000000

REVIEW, DAMMIT! NO NEXT CHAPTER UNTIL I GET 10 MORE REVIEWS!
(seriously)