You know what my favorite kind of villain is? The kind that has sympathetic traits, yet does such irredeemably evil things that you still want to see them go down hard. Lord Shen is a very good example of this type of villain and I've been trying hard to strike a similar balance with Kai Hui. Let me know what you think of him as a villain.

For bonus points, guess who the other named wolves in Hui's flashback are supposed to be. Not that it's too hard to figure out.

Chapter 12: Dreams

It was hard to forget the day he first tried to fit in with his packmates. It was a memory that had been forever ingrained into his mind since it occurred, and one that subconsciously drove him through all the years to come.

He remembered vividly the way he had just stood there for a while, watching them wrestle with each other mere feet away from him. The others who watched this were all shouting cheers and encouragement, while Hui found himself unable to say a word. His legs wouldn't stop shaking and he could feel his tail drooped onto the ground behind him. He wanted to join in, to be one of the pack like his mother told him, but he had no idea how to do that.

It was only a matter of time until one of the other wolves noticed him. "Hey, Laoban, get a load of pretty boy over here," he snickered.

One of the wolves in the middle of the scuffle looked up, now sitting on top of his opponent. This wolf was noticeably bigger than the others and more intimating. He wasn't the Alpha of course, but he seemed to be the leader of this group of pups. He had read once that it was common for wolf children to form miniature packs of their own within the larger one.

The big wolf, Laoban, got off the other one and walked over to Hui, who couldn't decide whether he should say something or run like heck. "Well, look at you," he said. "All neat and trim." He looked him up and down some more, then sniffed a little. "And you smell too."

"I-I do?" Hui asked, finally managing to say something. "But I just took a bath this morning."

"Yeah, that would explain it. You reek of lemony bath soap." He grabbed Hui by the arm and lifted it up, sticking his nose in his underarm. "Geez, even your pits smell like a flower garden."

Hui was feeling profoundly uncomfortable. "And that's...bad?"

"Heck yes, it's bad!" Laoban laughed. "Clearly, you need some lessons on how to be a real wolf."

Hui perked up. Finally, a way in."Y-Yeah! That's what I want! Could you teach me?"

"Sure, kid!" Laoban roughly slapped him on the back, nearly knocking him over. By now, the other wolves were also interested in the newcomer and a few were coming over to check him out curiously. Laoban grinned widely, already invested in his new teaching role. "Lesson 1: Cut down on the baths. Don't go overboard, just try to actually smell like a wolf instead of an air freshener. There's nothing wrong with a little dirt." To emphasize his point, he scooped up some mud and slapped it onto the front of Hui's shirt.

Hui winced, but nodded. Okay, be a little dirtier. That wouldn't be too hard, right?

"Lesson 2: Quit being so prissy. Wolves are all about primal expression. Let's hear a howl out of you."

"A-A howl?"

"Yeah, you know." Laoban threw his head back and let loose a loud howl that echoed across the neighborhood. "Now you try."

Hui had never really practiced howling before. He only really knew how to do it by instinct. But after some encouragement from the others, he took a deep breath and gave a howl that sounded pretty impressive...for the two seconds until he started coughing and sputtering.

"Eh, we'll work on it," Laoban said. Hui smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Lesson 3: Learn how to fight."

His eyes widened. "E-Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You know that we wolves are expected to join the royal guard someday, right? So consider this your training. Let's see how you do against Chin." He pointed to the wolf he had beaten before, only just getting up now. Chin saw him and smiled darkly. He was probably looking for a good way to make up for his defeat and wanted to take it out on him.

Hui gulped. "B-But I d-don't want to fight. I w-want to be a scholar."

Laoban laughed and so did the others. "Ha! A wolf? A scholar? Dream on, kid! Even if you're smart enough, no one would ever let you be a scholar. Everyone thinks wolves are too dumb."

"You're wrong!" Hui yelled, his fists clenching angrily. How dare these imbeciles mock his dream. "I'm not like that! I'm way smarter than other wolves!"

They stopped laughing. Laoban was now glaring at him. "What, you think you're better than us?"

"Yes," he thought, but he wasn't about to say that out loud. "N-No," he timidly said instead. "I-I didn't mean it like that."

He must have not sounded convincing enough because they clearly didn't believe him. "Oh, I think you did," Laoban growled. "If you think you're so high and mighty, why don't you take on ALL of us?" The other wolves closed in to surround him.

Hui started to panic. How could this have gone so wrong so quickly? He tried, he really tried, but he just couldn't fit in with the rest of the pack. He couldn't be like them.

"Get him!" Laoban shouted. The wolves all leapt on him in an instant, easily pulling him to the ground.

"No! Leave me alone!" Hui cried as they all started beating on him. "Leave me alone! Leave me alone!"

"Leave me alone!"

Hui's eyes snapped open and he breathed heavily, trying to calm himself back down again.

He was sitting alone in lotus position atop the roof of Gongmen City's kung fu academy, his new home. Taking the city had proven even easier then expected. The moment the people saw the cannon, the wolves, and the chained masters Ox and Croc, their spirits were instantly crushed. The feeble antelopes that now made up the royal guard threw down their weapons at once and surrendered.

The city had been occupied for days now, the fireworks factory was up and running again, and the Lang Qun awaited his next orders. Everything was going exactly as planned.

So why was it that he continued to feel so tense? Even mediation wasn't helping, just resulting in visions of the past that he would much rather forget. That never used to happen to him before. He glanced down at his right leg, now bandaged after his fight with that traitor Chou. He couldn't still be bothered by that, could he? That incident had been resolved and the traitor punished. His limp was gone too and he could walk normally again, so why would something like that affect him so much?

"Hearing voices now? Don't worry, that tends to happen when ya go crazy."

Hui frowned. Perhaps he wasn't as alone up here as he thought. Indeed, Jin the Assassin took a seat next to him a moment later. "I am not going crazy."

"Suuuurrreee, ya ain't." Jin winked at him. "Ya know, insanity is kinda like freezing to death. Cold and painful at first, but then nice and comforting as ya slip away..."

Hui ignored the vulpine's rambling. "What do you want, assassin?"

"Well, to be frank, I was kinda wondering when ya were gonna let me do my job."

"You're referring to Ox and Croc?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to kill them, yet now they're sitting all cozy in a jail cell halfway across the city."

"Your job was to get them out of the way," Hui corrected. "And at that you have performed...sufficiently. I've already given you your payment."

"I told ya, I don't care about the money!" Jin snapped. "This is about my honor. I want a rematch with those two masters. A real one!"

"Forget it. I plan to execute those two in public later today. I need to make a firm statement to the world outside not to interfere."

Jin pouted and crossed his arms. "Interfere with what?"

On cue, another wolf came up onto the roof behind them. "Sir, we have assembled the civilians. They are ready for your announcement."

"Announcement?" Jin asked, getting more confused by the second. "Just what the heck are ya planning to do?

Hui looked up at the morning sky and smiled softly.

"I plan to make history."

"Where am I?"

Master Storming Ox looked around in confusion. Last he remembered, he and Master Croc had been captured by the Lang Qun and were stuck in prison. But this was certainly not the prison. In fact, it bore a striking resemblance to...the bottom level of the Tower of Sacred Flame.

That only confused him further. The tower didn't exist anymore, and even if it did, how did he get inside of it?

He heard the front door of the tower open up behind him and turned around, expecting to see Croc walk in with him. But it wasn't Croc.

It was Master Thundering Rhino.

"...Master?" Ox was speechless. No way could Rhino really be here.

And that's when he realized this was a dream. "I guess I'm just deluding myself at this point..." he said sadly, turning his back on this figment of his imagination.

"I know what you're thinking," Rhino's voice said behind him. "But this is not just a dream. I have come to give you guidance, my friend."

Ox paused, slowly turning around again. "Wait...so it's really you?" He would be more skeptical about the idea of his deceased master talking to him in his dreams, but he was a close acquaintance of someone who regularly saw the future.

"In a sense. Can you really say that a spirit is the same being as the body it inhabited?"

"Hey, don't go all Oogway on me now. If you're going to tell me what to do, I want to hear it straight."

He looked away. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

"W-What? But-"

Rhino raised a hand to silence him. "Don't misunderstand. I want to save Gongmen City just as much as you and Croc, but I cannot move on with a clear conscience if I simply told you what to do. My time is over now, and you must show that you can protect the city without my help. You must end this crisis on your own."

Ox opened his mouth to argue, but realized that he was right. If they wanted to be true protectors, they couldn't keep relying on Master Rhino to bail them out. He bowed. "Yes, Master. I understand."

"All I can tell you is that there is still hope. You should know from the battle with Shen that even at the blackest times, you can still turn everything around. Do you want to save Gongmen City?"

"Yes," Ox answered without hesitation.

"Are you willing to give up your life to do so?"

"Yes." Technically, he had already tried to.

He pounded a spiritual representation of his cloud hammer into the floor. "Then go out and fight! Never give up until you stop breathing!"

"Yes, Master."

Rhino nodded, satisfied with his pupil's response. "One more thing," he said. "Your old friend has something to tell you as well."

Ox looked up, his jaw dropping. "You mean...Chou?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, he cannot be here himself, but he told me to pass these words on to you." He cleared his throat and spoke in his best imitation of Chou's rough voice.

"Kick Hui's ass."

Ox laughed. "Will do."

Rhino smiled and bowed to him, a gesture Ox would have protested had he been able to find the words. "Good luck, my friend. It's all up to you now."

Ox woke up with a start, almost making him topple over from his sitting position

He looked around to see that he was back in the prison he remembered. He was heavily chained, barely letting him move a muscle aside from being able to rock back and forth a little. Croc was in a similar position, with even his dangerous tail chained down to keep him from moving it, and the spiked ball that normally hung on the end had been removed as well. The reptile woke up only moments later.

"Croc, you're never gonna believe what just happened to me! I-" He stopped as he got a good look at Croc's flabbergasted expression.

He was about to tell him the exact same thing. "You too?"

"Yes," Croc nodded. "I've heard that powerful masters could live on as spirits and enter the dreams of others, but having it actually happen to me is a different story." He shivered. "I'm getting chills just thinking about it."

"You're cold-blooded."

Croc choose to ignore that. "So...did he tell you the same thing?"

"That we need to keep fighting to the bitter end? Yeah. Did you get the Chou impression too?"

"Yeah," he laughed. "Kick Hui's ass. That was him all right."

"Wait, that's it!" Ox suddenly grew a lot more excited. "The reason we've been struggling all this time is because we've been under the impression that we needed to defeat the Lang Qun. But we don't."

"...We don't?"

"No! Don't you see? If there's anything we learned from Chou's sacrifice, it's that Kai Hui is the glue holding that entire group together. We take down Hui, we take down the Lang Qun!"

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Croc grinned. "So what are we waiting for? Let's go take him down!"

The masters spent a few moments struggling in their chains before realizing that, despite their heroic inspiration, they were still stuck. They stopped struggling and slumped back over again. "Well, it was a nice idea..." Croc sighed.

As they went silent, they could pick up a faint voice speaking in the distance. "Hey, do you hear that?" Ox asked.

Croc nodded and the two planted their ears to the wall, listening closely. They quickly recognized the voice.

"Is that Hui?"

Kai Hui looked out upon the assembled populace of Gongmen City. A sea of goat, bunny, and antelope faces looked back at him, most of them showing clear nervousness. A makeshift stage had been prepared for him, where he proudly displayed his new cannon and a row of Lang Qun just as extra incentive to listen to what he had to say.

He walked up to the podium and spoke loudly, projecting his voice across the crowd. "Greetings, citizens of Gongmen City. As you well know, I am Kai Hui, leader of the Lang Qun and the new ruler of this city. I have been in this position for only days, yet I am aware that this has caused you all much anxiety. For that, I apologize."

He paused and waited for the crowd to stop murmuring between themselves. No doubt, they were surprised by how elegant he was for a wolf. "I am here now to tell you what exactly I intend to do with this city. First, the good news. Let me assure you that I do not intend to force you into slavery, conscript you into my army, or oppress you as Lord Shen did." That got a lot of relief from the crowd, and he paused again to let them appreciate it.

"Now for the bad news. I require all of you to leave my city at once."

That comment shocked them so much that no one made a sound for a moment. The moment after that was near-pandamonium. Hui tried to calm them down, but after this proved futile, he sighed and snapped his fingers. One of the nearby Lang Qun lit the cannon and fired it into the air, silencing the crowd instantly. "As I was saying, I need all of you to vacate as soon as possible. I realize this is a heavy burden, but a necessary one. For you see, I am about to turn this city into something that has never been imagined before."

Hui's voice rose even higher as he was overwhelmed by his own passion. "For too long, my kind had been subjected to the harshest discrimination, believing us to be unfit for civilized society! But under my leadership, that is no longer that case! I have built the greatest wolf pack ever to grace China, and that kind of glory should not be kept to ourselves! That is why, as of today, Gongmen City is no more! I am creating the world's first lupine city..."

He looked up and shouted into the heavens.

"...Chengshi de Lang!"