Soaring Dragon, Dancing Phoenix

by Luna Goldsun

Sequel to "That's Why They Call It the Present". The Jiao Clan may be defeated, but the past has a funny way of creeping back to haunt you, as Po and Tai Lung are about to find out...the hard way.

18. Chapter 18: Calm Before the Storm

Blah...I know, I know, it's been ages, and I'm sorry. But here's what's happened since the last update: I got engaged, started planning a wedding, adopted a kitten, had work, more work, even more work, a minor illness, ragweed allergies, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake on 8/23, a hurricane 3 days later that knocked out our power, then the remnants of a tropical storm this week, and...Christmas knitting. Why, God, Why did I plan to do this to myself again?

Anyway, I'm not happy with this chapter, but I really need to get the ball rolling again. I've been away from writing for too long and as I hate to leave anything unfinished, I need to finish this fic before I lose inspiration. I know it's crap. Please bear with me. And enjoy (if you can).

Disclaimer: obviously I don't own Kung Fu Panda or any of Dreamworks' characters. However, any Original Characters are mine, so please don't use them without my permission. Thanks.

Also, this chapter contains some spoilers from the second movie, just FYI in case you haven't seen it yet. You've been warned.

---

Chapter 18: Calm Before the Storm

---

"Star anise in cough suppressant? Really? I would've never thought of that."

"Well, the licorice is there for, of course, suppressing the cough, but I find my patients took it much better if it tasted sweeter," Wu Jiang stated.

Su Lin shrugged, "Makes sense. I just use honey, flavored with a little bit of orange or lemon rind."

"Ooh, that's a good one too..."

Shifu and Dalang sat in the corner watching the scene before them in the Long and Feng's private common room. Su Lin and Wu Jiang were animatedly talking about their separate experiences as healers. And Mantis and Wu Zhu were talking about their acupuncture techniques.

"Really? Whenever I tried that, I just made the headaches worse."

Zhu pressed her fingers against her temples and showed him, "Are you hitting right here, or further back?"

Mantis hopped up onto her shoulder to get a closer look. "Ew, further back, yeah. See, I made the mistake once of pressing too close to the forehead and, uh..."

She winced and made a face. "Oh, yeah, that can be a huge mess..."

"So right on the temples huh?"

"No, a little bit behind them, right here. I always applied a steady yet firm pressure. It shouldn't hurt them so if they wince, ease off and start massaging the area in small circles."

"Ohh...okay...Wow, that'll make things so much easier."

The only pair not happy to see each other were Tigress and Wu Tian, who sat opposite each other, arms crossed and murderously glaring at the other feline over the table.

Dalang sighed through his nose and muttered, "I think the world has gone mad."

Shifu muttered back, "I've a feeling it's only going to get worse."

"So let me see if we got this right," Dalang said.

"Okay..."

Dalang pointed at the female snow leopards. "Those are the Wu Sisters."

"That's right."

"And your wife, Wu Lien, is their mother."

"She is their mother as I am Tai Lung's father."

"So you're not the only red panda to raise snow leopards into kung fu warriors."

"Evidently not."

Dalang pursed his lips and sighed in tandem with Shifu. "And where is Aunt Wu?"

"With your son."

"Avoiding you."

"Most likely."

"Makes sense."

"It does, doesn't it?"

Dalang arched a brow. "I don't think you get my meaning. She's avoiding you because you're likely to blow this out of proportion."

Shifu slowly turned his head to stare at the tiger chef. The look on the red panda's face was incredulous as he demanded, "Blow this out of proportion...? The woman I married raised the three most notorious killers in the past half-century, and never told me. And you think I'm overreacting?"

"Shifu, did either of your kids turn out exactly the way you wanted them to?"

"Well, no..."

"Exactly."

"Are you forgetting the part where they tried to assassinate your wife?"

"If they really wanted her dead, they would've done that first instead of trying to kidnap our son, which is the only thing that makes sense right now."

"And you're sure of this?"

"Shifu, I grew up in one of the most notorious crime families China has seen in centuries. Trust me, I would know."

Shifu sighed and stared back at the table, taking in the healers, the acupuncturists, and the two silent felines who probably would have killed each other by now if it weren't for the fact that rug beneath them was a wedding present for Tai Lung and Mei Xing. Evidently both females knew that blood was a bitch to get out of anything.

"So where do we go from here?" Dalang asked. "We can't kick them out..."

"Why not?"

"Because they go back to Koshchei, and he kills them. We've been over this: I don't want anymore blood on my hands."

Shifu nodded. "Fair enough. But they can't stay here; they're a danger to others, and it doesn't sit well with me if they walk around free."

"I'm not exactly getting the warm'n'fuzzies about this, myself," Dalang agreed. "But what choice do we have? They know what Koshchei's plans are..."

"No we don't," Tian stated quickly, shortly, never taking her eyes off Tigress. "He's kept everything close to the vest."

"In other words," Dalang asked, "He hasn't changed a bit in thirteen years?"

"Nope."

"And you said their army was how big?"

"About forty thousand, give or take. He's killed a few to make a point here and there."

"I wish I could say that surprised me."

"You and me both."

"He makes a good point though," Zhu piped up. "What are we going to do? If the Boss finds out we failed..."

"The Boss isn't going to find out," Tian snapped at her sister.

"Seriously?" Jiang snorted. "The Boss knows everything."

"Why do I get the sneaking suspicion we're no longer talking about this Koshchei fellow?" Shifu asked suspiciously. This shut up the three snow leopards, who refused to say another word.

Tigress snorted, "Understand the only thing keeping me from killing all three of you right now is that it would greatly upset one of my closest friends."

"Um," Su Lin said, "Actually, blood doesn't bother me so much."

"Oh, no dear, I didn't mean you..."

"What the hell is going on?"

All eyes turned to the top of the stairs, where Mei Xing had paused, her amber eyes wide at the sight of the three assassins. The Wu Sisters likewise stared back at her, each one looking between her face and her huge belly. Tian now understood which of Tigress's 'friends' would be upset: "Hmm...alright, I'll grant you that. Upsetting a woman in her third trimester...generally not a good idea."

Mei Xing looked over at Dalang, then back at the three other snow leopardesses, then back to Dalang. "...Am I hallucinating, or is that...?"

"Yes, Mei, the Wu Sisters are sitting in our living room drinking tea and making friends...except with Tigress."

"Well yeah, that much is obvious. So...why are the most notorious assassins in China sitting in our living room drinking tea in the middle of the night?"

"Because they tried to assassinate my wife and kidnap my son."

"Oh." She shrugged. "Okay."

"What do you mean, okay?" Tigress snapped. "They tried to kill me!"

Tian sighed theatrically, "Let's get one thing straight, bitch...we only came for the brat, and we were kidnapping him for his own good."

Zhu tugged on her sister's sleeve and stage-whispered, "Um, sis? Not helping..."

"Koshchei has a hit on him," Tian finished quickly.

The room went completely silent, and all rage on Tigress's face...well, increased, to be perfectly honest. "WHAT?" she roared. Standing quickly, she ran for the stairs. Dalang only just managed to block her way. "Sweetie, sweetie, think about what you're doing—"

"I'm going to kill him!"

"Yeah, that's my worry."

"I know exactly what I'm doing—I'm ripping him apart!"

"Alone?"

"YES, ALONE!"

"Okay," Tian waved. "Your funeral!"

Before Tigress could turn around to snap back, Dalang grabbed her by the shoulders and held her firmly. "Listen to me—you can't take on Koshchei alone, that's why we've been training."

"Shut up," she hissed, cocking her head in the assassins' direction. "They don't know—"

"What, that you're preparing for a counter-invasion using the villagers as your main defense?"

Tian and Zhu turned to stare in surprise at Jiang, who was leaning back in her chair, balancing on the back two legs with her own legs propped up on the table. The middle sister looked at the stunned faces around the room and barked, "What? I'm not an total idiot."

"Wait, you're planning to fight back?" Zhu asked.

"Wouldn't you?" Su Lin asked. "This is our home. This is the only home I've got left. I may not be as strong as Tigress, or as fast as Mantis, or even as skilled as Tai Lung...but I'm going to fight tooth and nail to keep my home safe. I don't care how scared I get—that's true bravery, isn't it? Standing up for what you believe in even if you're standing alone, no matter what."

"That's very sweet, honey," Tian said. "But this is one of the worst assassins and killers in recent history—standing up alone isn't going to defeat him."

"And what do you know about that?" Tigress accused her. "You're working with him! You're no better than he is!"

Tian stood, the fur on her neck and shoulders rising. "You take that back, right now."

"Over my dead body!"

"ENOUGH!"

The room was shocked into silence again, this time by Wu Lien. The red panda returned to the common room with a weepy, cranky Shang in her arms. She handed the fussing and over-tired baby off to Tian. "You woke him, you put him back to sleep! I'm through with trying!"

"I don't know anything about children!" she protested.

"If you'd listened to me like a good daughter should, you might!"

"Oh don't you dare start that 'filial daughter' shit—"

Mei Xing raised two fingers to her lips and blew a loud, sharp whistle. Everyone cringed at the sound, and when she was satisfied she had their attention, she said, "'Kay, couple suggestions? One, Tigress, take Shang to his crib and put him to bed, he always listens to you. Auntie, stop harping on your daughters, it's one of the reasons I'm not speaking to my family. Shifu, I don't give a flying frick how mad you are at Auntie, you get over it and focus on training Dalang and getting ready for Koshchei's arrival. Dalang," she leveled a glare at him and said, "I can't find the cast iron skillet you use for desserts. I want to make rice pudding, and I can't find it anywhere."

"Again? You just had-"

"Cravings!" she snapped.

"It's in the sink!" he quickly answered.

"Thanks." She turned to walk back down the stairs and called back to the Wu Sisters. "Pudding, anyone?"

"If you're offering," Jiang said, raising her hand.

Tian glared at her sister. "How can you be so blasé about this?"

"What? I'm hungry."

"Ugh, I can't believe this!" Tian said, handing Shang off to his mother.

"You can't believe it?" Tigress demanded.

"Tigress?" Mei Xing called, "Put your damn kid to bed before I come up there..."

Tigress stopped herself from snapping back, took her son out of Tian's arms, and turned round to head back to her room, muttering, "...lucky you're my sister-in-law..."

After she quitted the room, Mantis dared to be the first to speak. "So...game plan? You girls on our side, or his?"

"Which one keeps us from getting killed?" Zhu asked.

"We can't make promises," Shifu asked. "The question remains who you fear more: the Army and the Emperor's laws...or Koshchei."

They didn't bother to think it over: "Emperor's side," they chorused.

"Forget it."

Dalang groaned and hid his face in his hands. Tigress glared across the room at Tian, who snarled back at her. Closing the door behind her, Tigress stormed across the room and got right into Tian's face. "Under no circumstances will I ever trust you. The minute I turn my back, you'll put a knife through it..."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Tian sneered.

"You give me one excuse, one single reason to take you out—"

A sharp scream from below shocked the females out of what was sure to be another row. Dalang bounded down the stairs in record time as the rest of the household followed. By the time they got downstairs, they were already too late.

"Mei Xing!" Tigress shouted. Time slowed. All she saw was Gao Ming hovering over the pregnant feline, a look of total shock and horror on Mei Xing's face. "MEI XING!"

Then Gao Ming fell sideways, landing hard on his back in the middle of the kitchen. The knife Mei Xing was using to cut up fruits for the rice pudding was stuck to the hilt in the elephant's chest.

"My herbs!" Su Lin shouted. "Someone get my kit! I can save him!"

Wu Lien ran to get the panda's medical supplies, and Su Lin knelt by the elephant's prone form. Pressing down on the wound as hard as she could, she tried to stop the blood gushing from the wound.

Mei Xing shook like a leaf, color drained from her already pale face, and she would have collapsed if Dalang and Zhu had not caught her in time. "It was an accident...He...he ran into my knife. I was cutting apples, heard a noise, and turned around...and he was...I swear I didn't mean...oh gods..."

Tian stood over the body, looking down at Su Lin's efforts to save the elephant. Tigress watched carefully as the snow leopard assassin knelt to pick up something from Gao's hand. A crumpled piece of paper and a knife. Tian flattened out the parchment and read the scrawled characters on the leaf. Then with a savage growl, she crumpled the paper, roughly shoved Su Lin out of the way, and in one fluid, graceful moment, whipped out her own knife and slit it across Gao's throat.

Su Lin screamed in horror as blood gushed, and even Tian's sisters were not immune to their own shock at their sister's savagery. Tian was seething, gritting her teeth in a way none had seen her before. Normally calm and collected, now she was enraged. To finish the job as the elephant shuddered into his last death throes, she ripped the kitchen knife out of his chest, and replaced it with her own, making sure to twist the blade in the wound.

Mei Xing had to turn away from the sight, but the dry heaving was very obvious. Zhu helped her sit, and both she and Jiang started fussing over her, Jiang offering some smelling salts she always kept on her.

Tigress stared in shock at Tian. "What was that?"

Tian straightened and handed her the crumpled paper. "This was no accident. He was here to kill her," she said, pointing to Mei Xing. "That paper has direct orders, signed by Captain Zang Deshi, instructing this man to kill a pregnant woman."

Now Mei Xing looked like she might seriously faint. Su Lin covered her mouth in horror, and now looked at the dead elephant with whole new eyes. How, she wondered. How could someone so honorable attempt such a thing? How could an honorable person agree to follow such an order?

Tigress was similarly in shock, but the paper wasn't lying. It was Zang's signature at the bottom, authorizing it. "I don't...I don't understand..." she said breathlessly.

"What's to understand?" Tian snapped. "This is the real reason we came to the valley in the first place—Zang's got a hit on Tai Lung, and we're going to take him down."

"Shut up!" Zhu snapped at her sister. "Don't tell them!"

"I'm not telling them everything. Give her to her family," she said, motioning to Mei Xing, "We need to go, now." She turned her attention back to her enemy. "Leave my knife sticking into him, and spread the word that we're here in the village."

"Are you insane?" Jiang hissed. "That would blow our cover!"

"And it would keep her from being tried for murder in a military court," Tian said, looking right at Mei Xing. "Zang's not going to care if it was an accident. He'll think you did it intentionally, and try to kill you through the courts. Tell them we killed this one, spread the word. Zang will get nervous, he'll slip, then we'll have him."

Tigress stared at her long-time enemy, and started seeing her in a new light. "You're taking the blame for this? Willingly?"

Tian shrugged. "Why not? It wouldn't be the first time." Then the elder sister looked to the doorway, right at the woman who had raised her. Wu Lien held Su Lin's medicine box in nerveless hands, but it was the look in her green eyes that still burned Tian to the core. That questioning, searching, pleading look. The same look her mother had given her the night she returned to tell her goodbye. And just like that night, so many years ago, the same conversation played out again.

"Just tell me why," Wu Lien said.

"I can't," Tian said.

"Tian, please, I'm your mother—don't be so obstinate and just tell me!"

"I can't tell you. Not yet. Just trust me." She stopped her before Wu Lien could say anything more. "Mother, please...trust me. Trust us. We know what we're doing." Without giving her mother the chance to stop her, she grabbed her sisters and ran out the front door.

And just like that, they were gone into the night.

The silence in the kitchen was only broken by Dalang, who gripped Mei Xing's shoulders. "You're sleeping in bed with Tigress tonight, no arguments. I'll go alert the guards and tell the magistrate what happened."

"What will you tell them?" Mei Xing asked, gasping for breath.

"Exactly what happened: Gao Ming was assassinated by the Wu Sisters."

"We have a problem," the spotted feline said.

"Not really—the sisters seemed to be okay with taking the blame."

"No, not that," she said breathlessly, pressing a hand against her stomach. When she looked into Dalang's face, she said shakily, "I think I'm in labor."

---

No one was more surprised by the news of Gao Ming's death than Zang Deshi. He, Quon, and Liu left the Jade Palace to identify the body at the courthouse at dawn. The black horse took in everything...especially the knife that had been pulled from the elephant's chest.

The horse seethed. The Wu Sisters. Those whores!

"I'm so sorry for your loss."

Zang turned to the one who had raised the alarm. Yu Su Lin stood over the body, still dressed in her blood-stained clothes. Even her hands and arms were still red, as if scrubbing had been unable to cleanse the blood. She sighed. "I only wish I could have done more to save him."

"You did what you could, ma'am," Liu told her. "We appreciate any effort to save him."

"Tell me exactly what you saw," Zang demanded.

Su Lin pursed her lips at his order. She waited until he remembered his manners: "Please."

It bothered Su Lin to no end how easily the lie came out. "I came downstairs to make a snack for Mei Xing – she's been on bedrest, so I cook her meals now. I heard a noise outside, so I went to go investigate, and Mr. Gao Ming was in the courtyard. He said he had business, but I don't know why he was there so late. I invited him inside, but...oh gods, it was horrible." She buried her face in her hands, mostly to hide the blush that suddenly crept up to her face. "They came out of nowhere. Out of nowhere, then back into the night. I tried to stop the bleeding, used every herb I had—" which was not true, of course, but just to keep her story straight, she burned all those herbs in case Zang got suspicious. "—but it wasn't enough. Captain...I am so sorry..."

Thankfully, he believed her. She was a healer, it was in her nature to help those who needed it, regardless of their allegiance. Why would she have any reason to lie? Su Lin waited until the officers and the cadet had wrapped the body in a shroud and carried it away for burial before she excused herself and went home, grateful it went so well.

When Su Lin returned to the Long and Feng Cafe to begin her shift, she paused to talk to Dalang, "He bought it."

"Good," he said, loudly chopping vegetables to keep people from eavesdropping.

"What's the plan from here on out?"

"Orders from Tigress: keep acting like nothing is out of the ordinary. We keep training, keep preparing for the invasion. Business as usual."

Su Lin nodded and reached for her apron to begin waiting tables. She needed the work to take her mind off things. The panda avoided Mr. Ping, who kept casting worried glances between the tiger, the female panda, and the odd stain that had suddenly appeared on his floor...and not for the first time, nor the last, would Su Lin be grateful the goose was such a heavy sleeper.

---

Mei Xing's eyes fluttered open. She was in her bed, no, she was in Tigress's bed, like Dalang had suggested. She was exhausted, and could barely remember a thing from the night before. The cramps she had gotten were gone now, and her whole body felt like it had suffered a brutal ordeal.

She started to cry.

She couldn't wait, the baby couldn't wait, and now Tai Lung had completely missed the birth of his first—

"What the hell!" she gasped and threw the covers off her body. Her belly was still big and round. She pressed her hand against her stomach. She didn't let out the breath she was holding until after she felt the baby kick. "Oh thank Heaven..."

"Nope, thank me and Mantis," Su Lin said, poking her head into the room to check on her charge. The panda's apron was stained with spilled noodles, but otherwise she looked cheerful. "His quick thinking kept us all from losing it. And I recognized it for what it was."

"What was it? Why am I still pregnant? I was having contractions..."

Su Lin stepped in and hugged her best friend, saying, "No you weren't. It was a false alarm. Women get them all the time near the end of pregnancy. It's a lot more common than you'd think."

Mei Xing let out a sigh of relief and sank back into the pillows. "Thank the gods...so there's still time."

"Yes, but not long. You're pretty far along now." Su Lin sat on the edge of the bed and handed Mei Xing a bowl of noodles. "Here, fresh from the pot. We were all worried about you."

"I was plenty damn worried, myself," she said, sitting up and gratefully sipping the broth. She looked down at her stomach and sighed in relief again. "Thank you. And when you see Mantis, thank him for me, too."

Su Lin beamed. "He knows. But I'll tell him when he and Monkey come down for Mr. Ping's Dragon Warrior Dumpling special. How's the soup?"

The snow leopardess lowered the bowl and sighed contentedly. "Really hits the spot. Thanks again." She paused, reaching for the chopsticks to eat the noodles. "What happened to the elephant?"

"Gao? Zang collected him, he's probably buried somewhere now. I wager he wanted to make it quick—I feel for poor Gao's family."

"What about Gao?"

"Absolutely not!" the panda snapped. Mei Xing stared at her in surprise. She had never seen this side of Su Lin before. "I don't care one lick for what happened to him! He tried to kill you, and he tried to do it because he was ordered to. Ooh...and that Zang, he makes me so mad I could just...ARG!"

Mei Xing jumped a little when the panda let out a sudden roar of anger. "...Su? Please never do that again. You're...kinda scary when you're mad."

Su Lin's temper quickly abated. "Oh! I'm sorry, I'll try to watch my temper."

"Don't worry about it...just promise me that when you do get mad...try to take it out on someone who deserves it."

"I couldn't do that! It's part of my healer's code: harm none, and help those who need it, even if they are an enemy."

"Even when it's hard?"

"Especially when it's hard. Who else would?" Su Lin stared down at the floor, then straightened up and stood. "I'd better get back downstairs. If you need anything, and I mean anything, just holler."

---

The fallout from the night before hadn't completely dissipated by noon that day. Wu Lien was in no mood for classes, despite the great need to hold them. She sequestered herself in her office, looking over the star charts and casting lots to see what the future held. She checked her almanac for the day before: "A bad day for travel in the direction of the Rat...good day to make a new purchase...expect a visitor from your past..."

Why hadn't she seen it coming? She checked her horoscope: the same thing. "Expect unexpected company towards the end of your day". The red panda crossed her arms and lowered her head. It had been ten years since she had last seen her daughters. Where had she gone wrong?

Someone cleared their throat. Wu sighed and raised her head. She knew who it was before even turning to the door.

"Alright, I'll explain," Wu snapped at her husband. "Not sure how much good it'll do, since you've clearly already passed judgment on me!"

Shifu said nothing, refusing even to look at her. He glowered, staring straight ahead. The only indication he gave that he was listening was a slight twitch in his ear. Wu took a deep breath and began,

"Yes, I raised them; I ran the safe house their mother came to. I didn't know her history and she never offered it. She said came to me for protection, she and her three young daughters; at the time, Tian was scarcely four years old, Jiang was two and a half, and Zhu was a newborn." As she began telling her story, the anger slowly ebbed from her voice like a tide moving out to sea. "Their mother went out looking for work one day and just never returned. I still don't know what happened. I kept those girls there with me, I raised them, gave them the best home I could. They were as close to daughters as I've ever gotten. I didn't want to see them as 'my girls', because for so long, I believed their mother would come back and take them with her. That all changed the day Zhu first called me 'Mommy'…"

She had gone quiet, and he swore he heard a tell-tale sniffle before she asked, "Do you have any idea what that feels like? To have some little stranger trust you so very much and look at you like…like…gods, I can't even describe it…"

He could. He remembered. A certain spotted little stranger had taught him that lesson. A little stranger that showed up at his door one cold night, and he too had held on to the infant, believing that whoever the parents were, that they would come back. Only they didn't…at least not for four decades. But Shifu knew that feeling. He knew how it was to be exhausted and sleep-deprived, running after a toddler from dawn until dusk, struggling to juggle career and family as a single parent, all the while coming to know this little person who had suddenly become the center of his world. He knew how pointless it could be to teach a two-year-old manners and discipline. He knew how unrewarding parenting could be at times. He knew—and sympathized with—how easy it was to get frustrated and lose one's temper and unfairly take it out on the child. He remembered the tantrums, the whining, the child learning words that he had no business using until adulthood, the picky eating and spoiled demands.

He also remembered the first time he'd been called "Baba". Somehow all the hardships and trials parenting brought could be nullified with just that single word. That and knowing, even at their worst, that little stranger still loved you, and you still loved them.

"When Zhu turned five, I knew I had a problem on my hands," Shifu's wife continued. "I knew I wouldn't be around forever, and that I needed to do something so that my girls could either be taken care of, or take care of themselves."

"Naturally," he interrupted, "You opted for the latter." He swore he saw the ghost of a smile on his wife's lips.

"Naturally," she agreed. "I started schooling them—I hired a tutor, unheard of for girls, I know. But I wanted them to know their numbers and characters, I wanted them to know anything and everything. 'The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world', and all that; children learn their first lessons from their mothers, but I wanted them to know so much more. Tian—what a bright, gifted girl!—found my fans one day…little brat had a habit with picking locks; I should have seen it coming…"

She shook her head ruefully, laughing softly. "She wanted to learn to dance. Well, little girls typically want to do what other little girls do, and her sisters wanted to learn as well…but Shifu, I was conflicted. After Jiao Shen destroyed my school and my reputation, I vowed to never teach Lotus Style again. But the more I taught my girls, the more I realized that they were not what men wanted—the kind of men I wanted for them would not have wanted them. They needed to be completely self-sufficient. So I taught them everything.

"I taught them everything I knew about dance and kung fu; I taught them how to read and write; I taught them subtle arts and graces. If they were ever curious about something, I encouraged them to learn about it. Jiang wanted to learn medicine; I sent her to train with an apothecary. Zhu wanted to learn about acupuncture; I sent her to study at an acupuncturist's. Tian wanted to be a dancer and a court singer, so I made sure she played as many instruments as she could possibly learn. And gods, was she glorious! She could play the most heart-rending music on a flute, and when she played the harp, you believed in magic and true love again…

"The girls were teenagers when I heard the news: Tian had been invited to perform with the provincial opera. Tian wouldn't go unless her sisters could go with her. I saw no problem with it because I knew Jiang and Zhu would benefit from the cosmopolitan atmosphere in the provincial capital; they would learn so much more there than they could in our small village. They got to the capital and began their own careers, but they visited so often, it felt like they had never left. I was so proud of them…"

"What happened?" he found himself asking. He could foretell the answer, and that it wouldn't be a happy one.

"One of the magistrate's men fell ill, quite suddenly and very suspiciously. It was quite a mystery for the longest time. One of Tian's last letters to me told me that she'd offered her sisters' expertise in treating him. Less than a week after starting the acupuncture and medicines my girls gave him, he started to recover. Then just as suddenly, he died."

"He could have died from anything," Shifu said.

"Shifu, he was scarcely thirty years old. Healthy thirty-year-old men don't just up and die like that." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself of that, and he knew she still had doubts about the whole thing. "Immediately, of course, suspicion fell on my daughters. But instead of staying and clearing their names, they ran."

"Well of course they ran," Shifu snorted.

"Innocent people don't run, Shifu!"

"They do it all the time! If the same thing had happened to me, I would have run, too!"

"The point is they lied to me!" she snapped, but she didn't look mad at him. If there was anyone she was angry at…it was herself. "They ran, and before long I started hearing rumors about them. I didn't want to hear it, I didn't, but they became too ugly and gruesome to deny it—they became assassins. They were killing innocent people, and laughing about it! You can believe all you want, Shifu, but I never raised my daughters to be murderesses!"

She groaned, holding her head in her hands. "Jiang could have been a brilliant doctor, Zhu could have been the best acupuncturist in the county—hell, the province!—and Tian was so talented she could have danced and sang for the Emperor himself! And instead, what are they? What are they?" she demanded. "I raised those girls to be ladies, and they turned into cross-dressing man-eaters!"

Shifu pursed his lips.

"What?" Wu asked.

"Nothing."

"'Nothing', my eye. What are you thinking? What were you going to say?"

"Eh…" he paused. "Just so we're clear, you will listen to my opinion, and not hate me for being honest?"

"I will not hate you—I married you," she said. "Hating you would go against my vows." She said this last sentence with heavy emphasis, as if daring him to violate his own vows. He wouldn't.

"And no matter what, you hold those vows sacred?"

"Of course! Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"Lotus, darling—"

"Oh no," she exhaled; she knew what was coming. Whenever he called her "darling", it was usually followed by something she would have a hard time hearing.

"Lotus, when I first met you—well, when I first argued with you—I had a lot of first impressions to get over. To briefly summarize what I'm about to say…now knowing the full history of the Wu Sisters…I can't say I'm surprised."

"Not surprised?" she blinked, astonished. "But—but I raised them to be—"

"I know what you raised them to be, but 'gentle ladies' is not what you intended; not really. On the surface, yes, you wanted to teach them all social graces and skills that would distinguish them and make them valuable. But if they came to hate men and patriarchy in general…"

"…You're saying that's my fault?"

"Lets face it—you blamed men, all men, for your troubles, especially Jiao Shen. Honestly, I look at those women and see how they act, and I recall their modus operandi, honestly…it all sounds like you."

"You're saying I turned them into murderers?"

"They attack and kill only men—never women and children. For so long it's been a mystery why they hated men so much…now it all makes sense."

"But you're still saying it's my fault."

"I'm saying nothing of the sort! If you want to believe it, then so be it. I came here for an explanation, and I got it. I also came for an apology, but, in light of this new evidence, I've decided to forgive you."

That was the wrong thing to say. It sounded better in his head. But now that the words had left his mouth, he realized how awful they sounded.

Wu turned on him. "You...forgive me? You forgive me?" she stood on her stool and pointed at him. "How dare you—come into my office, my school, and tell me you forgive me for something that I will never admit as a mistake!"

"You trained the three worst assassins in the empire!" he accused.

"And you trained the worst mass-murderer in this valley's history!"

It was a comment that hurt them both, striking like a knife to the heart. It hurt Shifu, of course, because even now, he still blamed himself for Tai Lung's rampage, even though he knew the snow leopard was accountable for his actions. But to hear such an accusation from a woman he had vowed to love and protect for the remainder of his life...

And it hurt Wu to think of her nephew as a murderer...and that she had twisted logic just to win an argument. She had done many things in her life that she regretted, but knowing that pained look on her husband's face was her fault...she reacted the only way she knew how.

"Get out," she growled.

Shifu didn't argue with her. He turned his back and left the room without saying goodbye. As soon as the door slammed behind him, Wu desperately flipped ahead in her almanac. Something about resolved conflicts...something. Instead, her horoscope in the coming days reflected nothing but hard work, bad luck, and inauspicious times. Right before the Winter Solstice, though, there was one shining ray of hope: "Expect many a blessing, in many forms".

Good, she was going to need it.

---

"What happened last night? Where did you go?"

Tian was not willing to tell Zi Hao anything, but he was quickly grating on her last nerve. All she had given him were curt answers to every one of his probing questions, until finally Zhu stepped in and said, "She went to find a healer for medicine to, ah, 'stem the red tide', if you know what I mean."

It took Zi Hao a moment or two, but once he got it, he wisely stayed out of Tian's way. And the others' way, just in case.

Tian was in a foul mood, but for many reasons. One, their plan had been screwed up and gotten far more complicated. Two, they missed the rendezvous with their boss, who would not be happy about it. Three, they failed their first objective. Four, she ran into her mother.

Ugh, ten damn years and the old bat was still as hard on her as she had ever been. She couldn't even look her daughter in the eye! From what Tian knew about Shifu and his relationship with Tai Lung (which was empire-wide knowledge at this point), Wu Lien and the Grand Master were made for each other. And together, they make their children's lives hell, she dourly thought.

As she sulked and plotted their next move, Jiang and Zhu were also trying to keep Zi Hao occupied and away from their sister so she could think. That meant conducting even the most inane conversations with him, including one that took Jiang off-guard.

"So how long have you been together?"

"All our lives."

Zi Hao gave Jiang an odd look. "How is that possible? You only met him two months ago."

It was Jiang's turn to return the stare. "Who are you talking about?"

"Duo. Who did you think I was talking about, your sisters?"

"Well obviously."

Zhu coughed. "I've actually been wondering that, too."

"Oh jeez, not you too!" Jiang groaned. "Look, there's nothing going on there."

"Nothing?"

"None. Duo and I are just friends."

"That's impossible," Zi Hao said. "Men and women can't be friends."

"Who says? Duo and I get along just fine. And if you're implying that...wait, what are you implying anyway?"

The black wolf snorted. "Isn't it obvious? Everyone in the horde thinks you're banging each other."

Jiang's jaw dropped. "I—it—what?"

"So...you're not?" Zhu asked. "That's weird. I mean, you spend all your free time with him, you're always enjoying each other's company. You hardly ever smile unless he's around, or unless you're thinking about him...like right now."

Jiang wiped the slight smile off her face. "No I'm not. I was just thinking about..."

"Save it. You like him."

"No. No I don't. Just drop it. With things the way they are, entering any kind of romantic relationship is out of the question."

"So that's it? You're just giving up on him?"

"I'm not giving up crap!" Jiang growled. "He's a friend, a good friend, someone I can mock other people with. Maybe enjoy a drink or two. That's it."

Tian broke the conversation up with a quick, terse "Sisters, I need you", and Jiang and Zhu quickly followed to a private conference with their sister. Tian collected them in a clearing surrounded by pine trees, and made sure to check their surroundings before going forward:

"I managed to get word to our Boss, who got back to us. Our objective now is our first objective: Zang. The Jiao baby is safe, now that his parents are aware of the danger to him. The Valley knows we're here and that we've made an appearance. That part of our plan worked."

"What about Koshchei?" Zhu asked. "He'll be mad when he finds out. He was expecting a sneak attack."

"Technically, he's still going to get it," Jiang said. "The valley knows we are here, but they have no idea the invasion is coming."

"But they do!" Zhu said. "You heard what was said last night: they knew he was coming, and they're preparing for it. We're in a hard place now."

"How do you mean?" Tian asked.

Zhu stared her eldest sister down. "We're enemies of the state, and if we turn ourselves in, we'll be killed; but if we go back to Koshchei, he'll kill us for our failure."

"Zi Hao failed him, and he's still kickin'," Jiang noted.

"Yes, but I think he expected Hao to fail. At least that was Lang's hope."

"What, that Hao would be killed by the Army back there?" Tian asked.

"Makes sense," Jiang said. "That's what we all expected. Remember what Lang told us when he gave us this assignment? He's been trying to get back at Zi Hao for the hell he put him through." Jiang sighed, "And after hearing some of those things from Duo...I can't say I blame the kid."

"We need Hao to carry out this plan," Tian said. "As much loyalty as we feel for Lang, we have to think of the bigger picture. Hao will be useful to us."

"He might be useful, but I don't trust him," Zhu said. She turned to her sister Tian. "We should never have gotten involved in all this. Now we're in too deep."

"You let me worry about that."

"No," Zhu hissed. "No, whatever you're planning, we want in on it. Don't keep secrets from us, Tian, not ones that could get us all killed."

Tian looked at Jiang. "Is this how you feel?"

Jiang stood with arms akimbo. "I generally like living, as odious as it gets sometimes. So, yeah, I want in, too."

The eldest sister sighed deeply, her shoulders heaving with the breath. "Alright. The Boss told us last night that other agents would be sent in if we didn't get back after an hour. New correspondance: we're going in anyway. We've waited long enough. Zang needs to be taken out, as soon as possible."

---

Elsewhere, another feline had also made a similar oath.

"Arg, fine, that's it, I give up!"

Shifu's eye twitched and his ears ticked in annoyance. "One must be patient when developing one's flexibility. You can't perfect lotus position in two weeks."

Dalang still struggled to get into the full lotus position, and his knees were starting to hurt. Nearing his thirtieth year of existence, the tiger chef was not in the best of shape to begin with. But Shifu, fortunately, knew that what his newest student lacked in flexibility, he made up for in strength. Hanging sandbags made perfect punching bags, almost obliterated each time Dalang threw punches for five minutes. He was brutal, but due to Shifu's instruction and Sonam's own training, he had learned to show some restraint.

While Dalang wanted to stay home that day, the Wu Sisters' arrival forced Shifu's hand. Koshchei was closer than any of them expected, and that bothered the red panda. Despite the continuing status reports about the villagers' training, he knew they were nowhere near ready to take on anyone or anything as large as the army purported to invade them. So against his better judgment, and against his feelings, he ordered Dalang to wrap up his training that day, to step it up and finally introduce swords into the regimine.

"Remember, the enemy is not expecting mercy. They will give you no mercy, so mercy in return will surprise them," Shifu said, knowing from experience.

Dalang sighed, but didn't say anything to refute him. In the tiger's experience, if anyone showed mercy, it was the quickest way to get killed. But, Shifu had made it this far to live to be so old for a reason. Sonam too, who was...perhaps not so merciful as Shifu. But Dalang started wondering about Shifu. Was there more to what the red panda was saying? Every piece of advice, every admonition, came with it the weight of years of experience, painful, bitter experience. So what exactly was he hiding?

"Ah, there's Sonam now with the practice swords. This part of our lesson has concluded." As the red panda stood, he offered Dalang a hand, and as he did so, asked, "How did it go this morning?"

"Mei's fine, Su said it was a false alarm. She's not in labor."

Shifu let out a sigh of relief. "Good...that's very good."

"What about Zang?"

Shifu swiveled his ears to check there was no one to eavesdrop before he whispered, "He claimed the body this morning. Gao will be buried in the valley and come Spring, his coffin will be sent to his family. In the meantime, he bought the story about the Wu Sisters."

"Again, what's to buy? That is exactly what happened."

"And that's the story we're sticking to, let us never speak of it again."

Something about Shifu's tone this morning told the tiger chef that now was not a good time to argue. "Sure, sounds good."

"Good. Sonam! Set up the course, I want to see how he's improved. Not that course," he said to Dalang's terrified expression. "The one Sonam set up for you."

Dalang's eyes shifted over to the private courtyard outside the Training Hall, where Sonam was setting up various dummies, wooden apparati, and other instruments of, let's face it, death and torture.

"Can I try the obstacle course inside again? I'll do better this time, I swear," he begged.

"Dalang, his course is not that bad."

"Oi, rodent!" Sonam shouted. "Give me a hand with these swinging axes, they look t'be jammed!"

Shifu looked over to where Sonam was working, then said with a cursory glance to Dalang, "I'll talk to him about it." The red panda moved away to the sidelines to watch the felines spar, and kept his distance; he swore it was so that he could better see Dalang's every move, but the tiger had his doubts about that.

"Gentlemen, pick up your swords," Shifu ordered. Sonam picked up one fake wooden sparring sword for himself, and Dalang picked up two identical bamboo staves with which to practice, to prepare him for using the blades Sonam had engineered for him.

"Ready?" Sonam asked.

Dalang held up the two wooden swords, "Ready as I'm gonna be."

Sonam held his sword front and center, Dalang crossed his own in front of his body, waiting for the elder to make a move. In one sudden movement, Sonam leapt forward and clashed his training sword against Dalang's. The tiger blocked with one, swiped down with the other, turning on one foot to duck Sonam's next swing. He thrust out one sword and barely caught a fold of Sonam's sleeve. The snow leopard jumped out of the way, twisting his body to stab at the tiger, who blocked the thrust with both swords crisscrossed in front of him. He lifted one above his head and swung it down and around in a wide arc. Sonam barely had time to duck. If they had been fighting with real swords, that swing could have easily killed him on the spot.

The snow leopard jumped out of the way to give himself his second wind. Dalang stood back, waiting for him to make another attack. Shifu's advice to play more defensive was working. Sonam was making more effort to gain ground than Dalang was to defend it.

Sonam struck again, Dalang deflected the blow, again turning on the ball of his foot forward, bringing his other sword around, slamming the wooden bar right into the snow leopard's unprotected stomach.

Sonam gasped, jumping back and sucking in air while struggling to stand upright.

"Are you all right?" Shifu called out.

"'Course," the spotted feline said scathingly. "I'm just writhing in pain for the hell of it."

Shifu ignored him. "Good job, Dalang. You're performing beautifully. You've come a long way in two weeks."

"You think so?" he asked.

"Of course. Sonam used to easily kick you tail, now you're just as good as he is."

Sonam collected himself and looked between the two of them. "No, he's better. He's surpassed me. Just one thing to remember," he said, then struck out with his practice sword and swiped at Dalang's legs, sweeping the tiger right off his feet. Dalang landed hard on his back. Gloating down at the winded tiger, the snow leopard finished: "Age and treachery beats youth and skill every time."

Dalang coughed. "I'll...keep that in mind."

"You damn well better. Koshchei's older than I am—think how treacherous he's gotten with age. He isn't a strong as he was in his prime, which means he's gotten smarter."

Dalang felt the blood draining from his face at the thought. Even Shifu felt uncomfortable knowing this. Sonam however didn't appear too worried. "Fortunately, you have the benefit of two treacherous old farts to give you tips."

"I wish I could say that was encouraging."

Sonam ignored him, instead looking out into the distance and narrowing his one good eye. "Heads up, mates, we've got company."

Shifu turned and inwardly groaned. Zang Deshi was climbing the steps to the training hall, surrounded with an aura of determination, as well as his remaining subordinates. The red panda silently cursed, while Dalang picked himself up and brushed dirt off his clothes.

"Good morning, Captain," Shifu greeted as the horse crossed the threshhold.

Zang snorted. "I fail to see the goodness of this day."

"Yes, we heard about your loss. You have our condolences."

Zang said nothing, glaring at Sonam before turning his sharp gaze around the courtyard. "You are all training this morning."

"We are," Sonam said curtly. "We are training Dalang here, and I aim to pass on my skills to him."

"I see. Why is he training?" he asked, directing his question to Shifu.

Shifu narrowed his eyes at the horse. "Why are you so curious?"

"It is almost as if he's preparing for battle..." Zang said, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"Yes, yes I am," Dalang said with a straight face, and Shifu felt his heart stop. "I am training for battle, this is all just some wild conspiracy to kill you and take over the empire and rule you all with an iron fist. Mwahaha. See, I'm even growing a dastardly mustache like Cao Cao so you can tell I'm a bad guy."

Sonam bit his lip to keep from laughing, but he couldn't hold back the snort. Dalang gave Zang the best cheeky grin he could muster. "Cap'n, I just put on a lot of weight after marriage. This is for exercise."

"Exercise." Zang didn't sound convinced.

Dalang countered, "Dude, have you seen my wife? I gotta keep this bod in shape to keep her around, you know what I'm sayin'?"

"Why with swords?"

"What swords?"

"You're holding those bamboo staves like swords."

Dalang shrugged. "Seemed like fun."

"It has nothing to do with the fact that twin short swords were your specialty in the Jiao horde?"

"It's a good cardio workout. You should try it sometime."

Zang bared his teeth and got into Dalang's face. "I know you are up to something, something very suspicious. And knowing your history—"

"I thought all that was forgiven," the tiger said with a straight face.

"Forgiven, Mr. Jiao, not forgotten."

Zang backed up a bit as Dalang hissed at him: "You think I forgot what my childhood was like, what my family was like? You think I've forgotten what awful things they did, the lives they destroyed? They almost destroyed me, but I came back from that brink, but not without a lot of help. I may not like my family, but for better or worse, I still love them, and no matter what you or anyone else says, I will not be accused of being an unfilial son. I may love them, but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn out like them, because I learn from their mistakes, and I learned what not to do. I learned how not to be a husband, how not to be a father, and I learned how not to treat people I consider family. So if you have anything else you'd like to say to criticize any member of my surrogate family, or any of my friends, you, sir, can shove it where the sun don't shine."

Zang could tell from the looks on Shifu and Sonam's faces that they did not in any way endorse this outburst. Sonam, in fact, had pinched the bridge of his nose and was avoiding all eye contact with the black horse. Dalang was still staring him down, but took a step back at the last minute.

"I'm going to repeat what I said before. You drop that attitude, right now. And you come anywhere near my family again, I will take you out."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." But Zang couldn't suppress the shudder he got when those sharp yellow-green eyes bored into him. The tiger dropped his voice and whispered, "We found the note."

Zang suddenly paled.

"You give me one reason, one more reason, and officer or no officer, pardon or no pardon, there is nothing that will save you. Nothing." Dalang's eyes flicked from the horse's face to over his shoulder, seeing the two remaining soldiers under Zang's command watching this exchange with nervous glances. Cadet Hu looked worried, while Corporal Liu looked suspicious. Dalang gave both of them a sharp look that made them bite their tongues before he turned back to their captain. "Now get out of this courtyard."

---

"What did he mean back there?"

"What?" Zang asked, turning to Liu.

They were back in their quarters in the Lower Palace, far away from the scary warriors training high above them, and, Zang thought, far enough away that no one would eavesdrop. The chestnut horse narrowed his eyes at his leader. "What did he mean by, 'we found the note'?"

How had he heard that? Zang wondered. "That is none of your concern."

"Sir, he just threatened your life. This is something we need to know about."

"This is none of your concern," he repeated.

"The hell it isn't."

Zang turned fully around and glared at the other horse. "You forget yourself, Corporal."

Quon was staring in shock and awe at the corporal, who had crossed his arms over his chest and openly challenged his commanding officer. "You haven't been forthcoming with us at all. Kong is dead, now Gao is dead, and you know the reasons why. Both of them were killed by knives, perhaps the same type of knife, and you had better tell us right now—"

"You dare to give me an order!"

"—Are we being hunted by the Wu Sisters?"

Zang inwardly relaxed. He still didn't know. Good. "I don't know."

Liu narrowed his eyes. "Not good enough. Are we or are we not going to be assassinated?"

"If those harlots were going to assassinate you, they would have done so by now. Corporal, trust me, you are no threat to them."

"But he is a threat to you," Quon growled, suddenly finding a backbone.

Zang rounded on the tiger. "You forget yourself as well, Cadet."

"Why was Gao there so late?" Quon badgered. "Why were the Wu Sisters there? Why are they even in the Valley? Matter of fact, why was anyone in that house up so late?"

"You have no right to question my orders..."

"You ordered him down there?" Liu asked. "Why?"

"That is none of your concern," Zang said as he turned away.

Liu snorted and stomped over, grabbing the black horse by the shoulder and throwing him up against the wall. "My friends and colleagues are dead, dropping like flies, and I want some godsdamned accountability! Why was Gao there? What were his orders?"

"I owe you no explanation. Now release me, or you will be courtmarshalled, and hanged. Are we clear?"

Liu responded in a way that shocked both other soldiers. He pressed his arm against the other horse's throat, and pressed harder and harder. "Tell. Me. Now," he seethed.

Quon spoke up as Zang gurgled. "Ah, Corporal—"

"Quon, shut up. What'll it be, Cap'n? You gonna come clean?" Liu looked right into his superior's eyes, and then something clicked. Zang could see it, Quon could see it, and suddenly, Liu's anger melted away into absolute horror. He stepped away from the black warhorse, and gasped. "He was there to kill her."

Zang rubbed his throat, sucking down air and coughing. Liu continued to accuse him, "You ordered him to kill Tai Lung's wife? You ordered him to kill his wife and unborn child?"

When Zang finally recovered himself, he stood upright and sneered, "One less monster to be let loose into the world. What other kind of future would it have with a whore of a mother and a murderer for a father?"

"That is not your call to make!" Liu shouted. He started shaking his head in disgust. "No...no, that's it. That's it, I'm done. No one ever said anything about murder."

"This is justice."

"THIS IS MURDER!" he shouted.

"Keep your voice down!"

"No!"

"That is an order—"

"Hang your orders! You told me when you recruited me that we were only bringing him in to justice, to have a fair trial, and nowhere in there was anyone supposed to get hurt. This is vengeance, not justice."

"There is no difference."

"There is a godsdamned difference!" Liu started marching for the door.

"Where are you going?" Zang demanded.

Liu reached for the doorknob. "To report you to the authorities."

"Don't you dare turn your back on me, Liu Yong."

Liu turned around long enough to give him another glare. "Go to Hell, Deshi." Then he made the worst mistake of his life. He turned his back. He started to turn the knob. Then his body slumped against the door, after Zang had unsheathed a knife and thrown it directly at Liu's unprotected back. Liu barely had a chance to cry out in shock from the sudden pain, but the death was quick. Zang's aim was true, and Liu had been pierced right through the heart. No one else in the room moved until the chestnut horse's body slumped to the floor and lay still, blood still pouring from the wound.

Zang pulled the knife from the corporal's back and turned to Quon. The tiger youth was dangerouly pale, and looked near ready to be violently ill. But Zang had to make his point and get it across quickly. He grabbed the youth by the throat and held him tightly.

"I will only say this once," Zang hissed. "You are to follow my orders, no questions asked. You dare to question me, and you will join him. You will follow my orders, you have no choice. Now, you are in this up to your neck. If I go, you go down with me."

He released Quon's throat, and the tiger stepped back a few paces and sank into a chair. He couldn't take his eyes off Liu's body. Zang snorted and started wiping blood off the blade. "Go raise the alarm and tell the palace staff that the Wu Sisters assassinated him. We will give him an honorable burial, so no one suspects a thing. No one will ever know. Right?"

Finally fighting down the nausea twisting in his gut, the tiger nodded. "Yes, sir."

---

Shifu was interrupted from Dalang's training by Mantis, who demanded to see him in no uncertain terms. The red panda listened to the insect's excited, rushed and whispered tones, looking more and more scandalized by the minute.

Sonam and Dalang knew something was wrong, so they ceased training long enough for the red panda to beckon them over and whisper, "Corporal Liu is dead."

"What?"

"How?" asked Sonam with suspicion.

"Zang," Mantis said, shocking them all. "He's cracked. Liu found out he ordered the hit on Mei, and he threatened to reveal him. Zang killed him to keep him quiet, and he's threatened the cadet to keep him quiet too. I saw the whole thing from my own little hole in the wall. I heard shouting, looked in, and sure enough, Liu was dead from Zang's knife."

Shifu made the decision for them all: "We are calling an emergency meeting at the restaurant. The rest of the Five need to know."

"What're we going to do about the horse?" Sonam asked.

"We will treat it as Zang explains it, likely that he was killed by the Wu Sisters. We will act like we believe him. The longer we wait, the more rope he has to hang himself with."

"Dunno," Mantis said, "He's got a pretty long rope already."

Sonam tapped on Shifu's shoulder. "One word, mate, all I'm asking...Give the word, and he's no longer a problem..."

Shifu knew what he was asking, and he flatly refused. He had come to like Sonam, and was not comfortable having blood on his friend's hands...or knowing that he was the one who ordered it. "We will discuss this down in the village. Our training is over for today. Mantis, get the rest of the Five together, tell them to meet us for dinner. They'll understand."

---

"Aren't you supposed to be on bedrest?"

"Yes, but I want to be here for this."

Crane sighed and shook his head. Mei Xing was being her usual hard-headed self, sitting in her chair with her feet propped up...once again knitting baby clothes.

"And how many blankets does one kid need?" the avian asked.

"Clearly you have no experience with baby spit-up," Tigress said. "Now, we're all here..."

And they were. Crane and Viper had been out running errands when Mantis and Monkey found them, and had come straight away when they heard about the meeting. Dalang was passing around bowls that he had filled with food. Shifu and Sonam were also in attendance, the older snow leopard promising to fill in Auntie Wu, who was still training students at the Lotus School.

When Mantis relayed what had happened to Corporal Liu, they were all shocked.

"Why haven't we arrested him yet?" Monkey asked. "He murdered one man, attempted to murder another..."

"I agree with Monkey," Viper said. "Master, Zang is too dangerous to still be loose."

"I know what you all are thinking," Shifu said, "And he will be brought in to justice. The reason I have not confronted him yet is that he's still too unstable."

"Isn't that the best reason to bring him in?" Crane asked. "He's unstable, he's taken the cadet hostage – I'm calling it for what it is – and he's on a homicidal mission. He needs to be stopped."

"And he will," Tigress said. "If there was a way to contact the Wu Sisters, tell them to move in..."

"He'll expect that, won't he?" Monkey asked.

Tigress shook her head. "I don't know, I don't think he fully believes that Gao was killed by them."

"He seemed to use them as an excuse pretty quickly," Mantis said.

"Let's take stock of the situation, the big picture," Monkey said, ticking off the points on his fingers. "We have one psychopath in the Jade Palace, we have another on the other side of the Devil's Mouth, Tai Lung and Po are still missing in action, and we have only the beginnings of a plan."

"I'm working out the details," Tigress said, "But I can't do this alone. Let's focus on Koshchei first, he's priority number one."

"Koshchei's not going to expect a huge army waiting," Dalang warned. "He's expecting some sort of opposition, though. So we're going to surprise him."

"Dalang," Crane said evenly, "You're my friend, and I'm your friend, and as your friend, believe me when I say that we can't fight them. I've seen how the villagers fight. There's no way they're ready. There's no way we are ready!"

"You guys are the Furious Five," the chef pointed out. "And don't forget, we've been training the villagers in basic combat."

"I know that," the avian said firmly. "But I also know this, from my cousin who patrols the Devil's Mouth: in the past two months, Koshchei's brought together a band of the nastiest outlaws and rogues we've ever faced. Sure, maybe their numbers aren't as bad as your dad's army was, but we're not just talking Jiao here. These are the worst of the worst, and they number in the thousands!"

Tigress cursed under her breath. As Crane went down the list of rogues, outlaws and thugs that had joined ranks with the Siberian Demon, the tiger master felt her trepidation rising. Even against some of the toughest armies in China, the Furious Five alone could have handled everything before now. The Jiao Clan had been a challenge, comparatively. But this…this sounded like all of their enemies, the people they had defeated at one point or another, and they were all convening together under a single banner to take out their most reviled opponents. Sure, their numbers were not so intimidating, but the level of hatred they probably held for the Heroes of China was nothing to sneeze at. This would be a harder battle than fighting the Jiao…and she knew it.

"Forces like that, we can't fight head-on," she said. "And we don't know who else will be joining them." She paused to think for another minute, then while her friends were debating a plan of action, the answer suddenly occurred to her. And the idea came from a very unexpected source:

"Alright, I've got a plan...Evacuate."

"What? Then what's the point of the training?" Monkey asked.

"I don't mean from the valley," Tigress said, "just the villages. Put the citizens in various points around the valley, in hiding, and wait for the enemy to enter the villages. The best fighters will stay behind to pick them off. Once the enemy is concentrated in the village, we surround them, then attack."

Crane shook his head. "It's risky."

"It can work," Mantis said. "It's definitely a risk, but it can work. Where'd you come up with the idea?"

Tigress pointed downstairs, indicating the family altar. "My father-in-law, Shen. Remember a few years back, the battle of the capital of the Wei kingdom? That's what ended up happening. He tricked the opposing army into holing themselves up in the city, and his troops surrounded them and took them out. Now, I know, not the best example to work from...but this can work. We're going to overwhelm them."

"We don't have surperior forces," Crane reminded her.

"I can help," Su Lin said suddenly.

Tigress felt for her, she truly did, and she didn't mean to patronize the panda, but she said, "That's very kind of you, Su Lin, but healing the enemy wouldn't help us much."

The panda frowned. "I didn't say I would be a healer."

"Then what role would you play?"

Su Lin chirped: "Demolitions expert!"

Tigress blinked. "What? Since when?"

Su Lin huffed and pointed at herself. "Okay, hello? Certified apothecary? Duh. We don't just dabble in herbs you know."

"You can make rockets?" Shifu asked, suddenly awed.

"Well, not exactly," Su Lin said, suddenly sheepish. "I still hold by my oath to harm none. They're not so much rockets as flash bombs. They'll make a big bang and a bright light to temporarily blind and deafen the enemy, giving you time to get away. They're not strong enough to kill anything."

"But that still comes as an advantage. I'm guessing not a lot of gunpowder goes into these?" the red panda asked.

"Hardly any at all," she said. "Which means that, with the low supply we have already, we can spread it out better."

"That would be a great advantage," Monkey said.

"I don't know," Tigress said. "Any kind of explosive in close-quarters urban fighting doesn't sit well with me."

"But we can use it outside the village limits," Viper suggested. "Set up some little traps, only use them in well-ventilated spaces..."

"But these were designed to be used in close quarters," Su Lin objected. "For many of the weaker, smaller villagers, it could mean the difference of living to fight again, or getting killed in battle."

"I'm sorry," Tigress said, "But I'm not comfortable with it. The flash bombs are a good idea, but I don't want to run the risk of anyone getting seriously hurt."

"Except the bad guys."

"Except the bad guys," Tigress agreed with a nod.

"I'm sorry, Tigress, but I have to disagree," Viper said. "I like the idea. And Su Lin makes a good point: for those villagers that are too small or old or weak to fight, these flash bombs can give them a chance to run."

"They don't even make a big explosion," Su Lin said. "They're like firecrackers, honestly."

"Maybe so, but I'm not setting off firecrackers in my house," the tiger master said stubbornly.

Dalang cleared his throat. "Um, sorry hon, but I think its a good idea too."

Tigress hesitated, looked around the circle at her friends and family, then sighed. "Am I the only one that thinks this is a bad idea...or am I overruled?"

Sonam spoke for the group: "Overruled, love."

"Wonderful." She sighed, then turned to Su Lin. "Okay, start making them. Make as many as you have materials for. But...just be careful."

The female panda offered her a sunny smile, "Aren't I always?"

---

It took very little to make Lang nervous, but Koshchei, lately, was doing just that. After Bao Nu's death – or "disappearance" as the rest of the horde knew it – Koshchei had gotten more and more withdrawn, less jovial than he had before. Instead he spent most of his time staring into the flames in the fireplace at the inn, ignoring the innkeeper and others who came by to see if he was comfortable. The leopard's tail twitched like it had a mind of its own, while the rest of his body was perfectly still. Sometimes he didn't move for hours, which made Lang wonder a few times if the old cat had died. Unfortunately for one poor crocodile, that proved not to be the case; the croc worked on unreliable intelligence that the cat was dead and therefore free for looting.

That croc didn't leave the room alive.

Word of that quickly got around, and Lang noticed that most of the horde regarded him very suspiciously, and stayed away from Koshchei's room. He heard whisperings that perhaps Koshchei was responsible for Bao Nu's disappearance. Which, actually, wasn't far from the truth. Had Koshchei never suggested it, Lang would have never dared do it.

But now even Lan Duo was getting nervous. He spent less and less time with Lang and Koshchei, even though he was in the old leopard's good graces. He knew enough to keep his distance, and took the opportunity to keep Lang away as much as possible.

The bandit focused on Lang's training. The youth had come along nicely, and was by now skilled with spears and lances, to a level that Duo was comfortable with. The kid could finally hold his own, and as his teacher, Duo was rather proud of that. One day after training, not too long before the Dong Zhi festival, he returned to the room he now shared with Yu Wang and Xu Jiu, to find them conversing in low tones, cutting themselves off as he entered.

Sweaty despite the cold late autumn air, Duo breathlessly asked, "What? I do something?"

"Nothing," Xu Jiu said quickly.

"I'll take a bath, I swear."

"It's not that. Though we'd like it if you did."

Duo held off on sniffing himself to see if there really was a need and shrugged. "No need to keep secrets from me, guys. I'm still one of you."

Yu Wang looked dubious. He cleared his throat, "Koshchei gave the order to move out while you were training the kid."

Duo blinked. "So soon? I thought he wanted to wait."

"We did too," Xu Jiu said. "He wanted to leave ahead of schedule. Guess he thinks we'll have a hard time crossing the bridge."

"Sure, it's not an easy one to cross. And the weather getting worse by the day..."

"Do you trust him?"

"Who, Koshchei?" Duo asked, then scoffed, "Hell no I don't trust him, and if he's smart, he won't trust me either."

"Well duh, obviously. But don't you think...I mean, isn't it weird that suddenly random members of this horde are going missing? And just a couple days ago, he killed that croc?"

"To be fair," Xu Jiu pointed out, "That croc was kinda askin' for it."

"I don't like it," Yu Wang said. "I was on board with this in the beginning but now I'm having second thoughts. Where does this go, how far does this go?"

Duo considered what he said. He'd been wondering that too. He wagered that, at seventy-eight years of age, Koshchei didn't have much time left, and if he did, how likely was he to be in the shape he was now? He remembered the vow they'd made earlier that autumn: one day, the old leopard would get weak, get careless, and then he could be taken out. When that day happened...

He'd considered alternative plans. He figured that with the treasures the Valley of Peace likely had, he could retire somewhere, maybe bring Lang with him, maybe adopt the kid as a younger brother or something, and they could live like kings for the rest of their days. That seemed like a pleasant prospect. Duo was getting rather tired of the bandit lifestyle, and would be happy to leave it all behind. The only thing standing in his way was Asmodei Koshchei.

"Wherever it goes," Duo said, "It can't last much longer. How soon are we leaving?"

Yu Wang said, "First group left a half hour ago. We're going along next."

"Alright. I'll go get Lang and meet you guys at the Thread of Hope." Duo grabbed his bag and walked out, leaving behind two very anxious wolves, who were not at all convinced Duo saw the danger they both did.

---

Duo found Lang standing at the shore of the lake, looking out across the water to the surrounding mountains. The youth made a more impressive figure now; his posture was improved, and there were definite muscles on his otherwise skinny arms. Most of the time, lately, Lang had even started to look more confident. Today, though, the youth looked much the same as he had when Duo had first met him: like a scared, kicked puppy.

"Hey, ready to go?"

Lang jumped. He hadn't heard his teacher's approach, but recovered with a nervous laugh, "Jeez, man, don't do that. Damn near gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry. What's got you so jumpy?"

"Nothing."

"Lang."

"Okay, it's..." Lang looked around, out of habit, as most of the horde had gone on ahead. The shores of the lake were deserted, but even so, Lang lowered his voice: "Koshchei."

"What about him?" Duo asked in a whisper as well, but he didn't know why.

"He's seemed...different, lately. Like, he used to laugh and joke all the time, now he's really serious."

"Well, yeah, he is. He's an assassin, they get serious from time to time."

"Its not that. I've...I've been getting second thoughts, lately. I didn't think of him as, well, dangerous before..."

"Before the croc?"

"Something like that."

"Lang, didn't you think that with a name like the Siberian Demon, that he might be a tad unhinged?"

Lang finally looked him in the eye and told him, "I think I'm in over my head."

Duo paused, then started walking along the shore. "Lang, you've always been in over your head."

"Not like this!"

"Yes, like this. If you left White Wolf, he would have killed you. If you leave Koshchei, he'll kill you. Is that what you're worried about? C'mon, he likes you. Why would he kill you?"

Lang didn't answer him. He was too deep in thought. After killing Bao Nu on Koshchei's orders (fine, suggestion), Lang had begun to have second thoughts. He wasn't meant to be a killer. Taking a life had been very unsettling, despite what he told the old leopard. Tan Lan had deserved it, Bao Nu...well, he could argue the world was better off without him. But the more Lang thought about it, the less he was sure he wanted to be feared like the leopard was. The more he thought about it, the more he saw that he had, quite literally, made a deal with the devil and there was no way out.

Lang stopped walking to look back at Duo, who had also stopped walking. The taller wolf's eyes were trained on something that had washed ashore; he walked over to the lumpy white-shrouded object and tore open the white cloth to see what was inside. He, being a bandit, likely thought it was some valuables the owners of the inn had thrown into the lake to keep from the outlaws.

Lang recognized it immediately.

"Duo, don't!"

Duo stood and backed away from the shroud he had just opened to reveal its contents, a hand poised over his gaping mouth. He looked like he was trying to hold in a horrified scream.

He had just discovered Bao Nu's headless corpse.

Lang cursed, realizing he hadn't gotten rid of the body as best he could. He should have used more weights...

Then Lang froze. Something about Duo's lack of response made him look back. Duo hadn't screamed, hadn't vomitted in disgust, hadn't even moved. And what Lang saw when he looked back almost made him sick.

The look on the outlaw's face was...horror. Sheer, total horror. To think of all the things the bandit had been through, the torture and abuse he suffered, and the dozens of lives he had taken by his own hand...to see the horror in Lan Duo's suddenly very pale face looking right back at him felt like a slap to his face. But it was when Duo looked at his charge that he – in total disbelief – put the pieces together.

"Lang...what have you done?" he asked in a disembodied way, as if he refused to believe that Lang—little Lang—was capable of something so monstrous.

Lang just stared back at him. How had he figured it out? Was he that transparent that Duo could tell this was his work?

"What have you done?" he repeated, pleadingly, hoping that Lang would tell him he was wrong, tell him that he was not capable of this, that he was not a monster.

Lang looked back down at the corpse, that was now bloated, which likely was why it floated back up to the surface. He hadn't known that about dead bodies. Why didn't Asmodei tell him this?

"You did this, didn't you?"

Without hesitation, Lang nodded.

"Why?"

"We needed the money" was what he wanted to say, but instead he said:

"Because Asmodei told me to." Then he stopped himself. He looked right into Duo's eyes, and realized for the first time how come I never noticed his eyes were that shade of brown, like deep amber? But he also realized...

"Oh, my gods," Lang said, holding a hand up to his mouth. It did very little to stop the vomit that suddenly poured from his mouth. He hunched over and vomited more, coughing and hacking until he collapsed in the dirt, completely drained.

Duo didn't even move to assist him.

Lang chanced a look up at his mentor.

Duo's expression had hardened, and he wouldn't even look him in the eye.

"Duo...I'm sorry."

Then the other wolf snapped, turning on him. "Sorry? You're SORRY? You killed a man in cold blood, for no fucking reason...you strung us all along, making us think you were still sweet, innocent little Lang, and this whole time you've been a total fucking psychopath...you betrayed us, and all you can say is you're sorry?"

"I didn't mean to!"

"Its pretty fucking obvious you meant to!" he shouted, pointing at the bloated corpse. "Who do you think you are? You think that Hao's abuse is reason enough to do this? This...this is sick. No, fuck this," he said, suddenly pacing. "No...I wanted revenge, but not if this is the cost."

"You wanted him dead! I'm going to do that!"

"When did I ever say I wanted him dead?" he shouted.

"How else do you get revenge?" Lang challenged.

"By completely destroying him, that's how! You don't have to kill someone to destroy them!"

"Yes you do!"

"How do you fucking know?"

"Because that's what Asmodei says!"

And there it was. Something shifted behind Duo's expression, and Lang knew immediately what had happened. "Oh gods...Duo, wait—"

"That son of a bitch," he seethed, drawing a knife. "That son of a bitch. I'll fucking kill him."

Lang made a move to stop him. "Duo, no, he'll kill you too!"

Duo turned around and punched Lang so hard he sent the youth sprawling back, tripping over the shroud and into the water with a loud splash. Lang held a hand to his face, looking back at Duo with a shocked, betrayed look. But Duo wasn't about to give him anymore mercy.

"Don't you dare look at me that way," he growled. "I have been through a hell of a lot more shit than you ever will, and I never turned into...this!" He pointed at the body again. "If the only difference between me and you is that damn cat...then he's out of the picture."

"He'll kill you!"

That was when Duo said something that would haunt him the rest of his life: "I'd rather be dead than know I helped create you!"

Lang sucked in a breath and felt something so agonizingly familiar: his heart breaking. Despite the fact he wanted to show how hard he had become, despite wanting to show no vulnerability whatsoever...he couldn't stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks. By now, Duo had turned his back on him and was marching to the Thread of Hope to confront the man responsible for bringing out his dark side.

---

Asmodei was waiting outside the guard post, wiping blood off his claws with a spare shirt owned by one of the bulls. The leopard was once again disappointed; taking them down had been too easy. Really, what were soldiers made of these days? It was a wonder China had not been invaded ten times over.

He knew what was coming. He could hear the heavy breathing long before he could smell the wolf, and sense the blind rage coming off him. He knew the scent; each of his prey smelled the same, in one way or another. The leopard didn't bother to look up.

"Body float, da?"

Duo froze after he rounded the guard post, the white-knuckled grip on his knife shaking. He took in the two dead bulls, the blood-soaked floor, and Asmodei's bloodied claws. Another senseless death...but no more. No more deaths, if Duo had any say. But right now, he wanted some answers. "You knew?"

"Who you think give order, volf?"

They had attracted an audience, but Duo didn't notice. Asmodei was happy to know that so many under his command were there to see this. He wanted every last one of them to know how he dealt with disappointment. Lan Duo was a very effective teacher, but, much like Jiao Dalang, he was weak. Shame, too, he had such potential.

"Why not do it yourself? Why drag him into this?"

"Vhy you care?"

Duo seethed, "I care because I do. Damn it all, I started to love the kid like a little brother. He had so much potential and you ruined him."

"I ruin?" Koshchei asked, "or he ruin hisself?"

"Fuck you, cat!" the wolf snapped. "He would've never turned out this way except through you!"

"He suffer abuse."

"So did I, but you don't see me doing what he is! What's your real angle?"

Koshchei chuckled. "Vhy you think I tell you?"

"I'll make you tell me."

Koshchei turned slightly and raised a brow at the enraged wolf and his knife. Then the leopard chuckled again. "You think I am...how you say...afraid?"

"You should be."

"Ha! Vhat threat are you? Leettle boy afraid of the dark...is leettle cub brave enough to face most vorst darkness in history?" he mocked.

Duo hesitated, only slightly, but Koshchei noted it. "I'm not afraid of you."

"You are."

"I will kill you, right now, and all your plans are finished."

Asmodei put the pipe down on a nearby rock, and turned to fully face the wolf. Raising his arms, palms up, he beckoned the wolf to strike. "Vhat you vait for?"

Duo growled and charged, slashing the knife at Asmodei's middle. To his shock, what should have been a clean hit turned into the leopard grabbing him by his tunic and throwing him over his shoulder. Asmodei slammed the wolf into the rocky ground, knocking the wind out of him. Pain shot up Duo's spine, and it hurt to breathe. How the hell had the old bastard done that?

He opened his eyes just in time to roll away when Asmodei's claw came down to slam down into the dirt where Duo's head had just been. He got back up onto his feet and dodged another two punches the leopard threw at him. Duo, like other outlaws, had heard of Asmodei's prowess in battle, but he figured a seventy-eight year old geezer had to be easy pickings. The wolf was quickly learning that he was dead wrong.

Koshchei nailed a hard punch on Duo's jaw, sending the wolf stumbling backwards. Duo's heart skipped when his heel fell back into nothingness. Somehow, during the short fight, Koshchei had backed him up against the Devil's Mouth...and Duo was teetering dangerously above the dense fogs in the deep trench.

He quickly dived down into the dirt, dodging another charge. Rising to his knees, he was greeted by three more hard punches to the face. He was down, his knife falling from his hand. Koshchei struck again, slamming his palm down on top of Duo's neck, pinning the wolf to the ground. Duo clawed at his arm, struggling to breathe while his other hand tried to reach for the knife. Koshchei's face contorted into a grimace as he tightened his grip on the wolf's throat.

"No, STOP!"

Koshchei looked up to see Lang pushing through the ring of outlaws that had gathered to watch the fight. Xu Jiu stopped Lang before the youth could get any closer. "Asmodei, DON'T!"

Duo took the chance Lang had given him, feeling the leopard's grip slacken enough for him to grab his knife and stab it right into the leopard's already injured shoulder. Koshchei let out a profound roar that echoed off the peaks and through the canyon, something that chilled the blood of all who were witnessing this fight. Duo brought his legs up to his chest and kicked hard into the leopard's stomach. Koshchei fell back a few yards, dangerously close to the cliff.

Duo got back up to his feet, blood trickling down his neck where Koshchei's claws had pierced his skin. His side hurt, his back hurt, his face hurt, but he wasn't done, not by a long shot. He stood his ground, this time waiting for Koshchei to get back up. It took the leopard a moment or two, and when he finally stood again, panting, he fixed his blue-green eyes on the bandit and hissed in Russian.

Duo snorted, "Let's try speaking Mandarin, okay bud?"

"DUO GET DOWN!" Lang screamed.

Duo hit the dirt as Koshchei pounced at him, the leopard flying up over the wolf who had ducked just in time. Instead of turning back to attack the wolf, Koschei instead lashed out at Lang. Duo gasped and felt his heart sick into his stomach. Koshchei was pissed at the kid...and Duo had riled him up enough for him to kill him!

Snarling, Duo ignored his pain and threw himself at Koshchei's unprotected back, digging the knife into him. Koshchei turned his rage back against the bandit, having first grabbed Lang by the neck. His attention diverted, he let go of Lang before the youth suffocated. But Lang could only watch in horror as Duo attacked the leopard again and again, only to be parried each time, take numerous hits, and then choke as Koshchei grabbed him by the neck again. Lang watched in horror as Koshchei raised Duo off the ground and stalked to the cliff.

"No..." he rasped, trying to scream but his throat hurt too much. "No!"

Duo knew what was coming, and he desperately tried to claw at Koshchei's arm, the knife in his hand useless against the mad leopard's thick skin. Koshchei was so enraged, he ignored all the pain, all the blood that soaked his sleeve, all the injuries. In a strength only brought on by madness, he walked straight to the edge of the cliff, seething, but smiling to see the terror in Duo's eyes.

"Dasvidanya," said the leopard.

He let go.

Lang shrieked Duo's name as the wolf disappeared downward into the mists. Xu Jiu and Yu Wang held Lang back as he collapsed into the dirt, hanging his head and sucking in breaths. Somewhere between sobbing and dry-heaving, he didn't realize that Koshchei was there until the leopard stood right in front of him.

"You were a fool to trust him," he said in Russian. "You only have yourself to blame."

"That's not true," Lang said, tears starting to pour down his cheeks. "That's not true..."

"His death is your fault. Don't forget that. You are my student now; if it is love you want, you follow me. If you are content with mediocrity, you can join your precious pack member."

Lang stared at the cliff, the mists rising from the canyon. He hadn't heard Duo scream. He would have screamed. He wanted to scream. He still wanted to scream. But right now, more than anything, he truly did want to join him... Koschei was right. If it hadn't been for him, Duo would still be alive. It was his fault. It was all his fault, everything! Why did he ever think anything would ever be different? Everything had always been his fault, why should it be different now?

If it hadn't been for him, if he had never killed Bao Nu so he could achieve his mentor's affection, maybe he could have joined Duo...they could have run away, been bandits together, been a pack...

He had been an omega before, but Lang had never felt so alone as he did kneeling in the dirt before the Thread of Hope, staring out into the nothingness below.

Koshchei growled and grabbed the youth by the back of his head, yanking him up sharply. "Don't even think about it. We both know you don't have the nerve. I'm not done with you yet. You are mine until the day I decide you die, got it? You will not outlive me..."

Lang managed a quick nod before Koshchei let him go. The youth collapsed back into the dirt and hunched over, desperately trying to hold back the sobs. Koschei barked an order to the standing army and one by one, they started to cross the bridge.

Lang felt two pairs of hands hold him up and help him stand. Xu Jiu and Yu Wang waited until Koshchei had stalked back to the guard post for provisions and slammed the door behind him.

"Fuck this," the normally taciturn Xu Jiu said. "I'm not stickin' around for him to bump me off too."

"Ditto," Yu Wang said. "We're crossing, now." He held Lang up and shook him by the shoulders. "Listen kid, I know this'll be hard, but you gotta listen to me."

"Why should he listen to you?" Xu Jiu asked incredulously.

"Will you shut up? Lang," he said, "What'll it be? We can turn around now, find someplace to hide..."

Lang started catatonically shaking his head, muttering in a disembodied way. "No...no, he'll find me...he's come this far for Jiao Dalang...he won't rest until I'm dead. He's going to kill me. I should fall...let me fall..."

Yu Wang snorted and knocked Lang so hard in the head that the youth fell into Xu Jiu's waiting arms. "That'll work for a couple hours, we need to get moving."

"Where?" the large wolf asked. "You heard the kid, if we run, he'll come after us. Even with this invasion, would you put it past him?"

Wang thought about it, then cursed. "Damn, you're right. He killed Duo like it was nothing...we can hide in the valley. Turn ourselves into the authorities."

"Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what they'll do to us?"

"Do you have any idea what Koshchei will do to us?"

Xu Jiu took a moment to think this over, then gave the assassin a pale-faced look. Then he slung Lang's unconscious body over his broad shoulder "...Yeah, let's go turn ourselves in."

Wang nodded quickly and cut in line to get onto the bridge. Xu Jiu followed right behind him, and the whole first half of the journey across, Lang lay like a limp doll over the large wolf's shoulder. In the blackness, it was the only way he had any kind of peace.

---

After leaving Chengdu, the travelers rented a boat to take them the rest of the way to the Thread of Hope. Altai's knowledge of the landscape was exceedingly helpful, and meant that Po and Tai Lung would get to the Valley of Peace much faster than if they had gone over land. This made the snow leopard very happy, and in fact was in excellent spirits for the first two days. They made excellent time, sticking to the rivers and the few canals they came across. Altai proved himself to be as able a sailor as he was a soldier, steering the boat through more treacherous rapids and rock-filled fords into deeper water. The boat itself was a little leaky in places, but still sea-worthy.

Like Altai, Little Brother spent most of his time up on deck. However, the little red panda cub spent most of it seasick. He was a creature of forests and mountains, and the churning waters and rocking vessel did little to settle his stomach. Altai took great care of him, feeding him plain rice and vegetables, and plenty of herbal teas to keep him hydrated. Before long, though, the rhino grew very worried, and so did Po and Tai Lung.

"There's a village up ahead, about another mile," Po said. "I've been there before. We can stop for a day or two, until he gets better. We can also get medicine and food there."

The others thought it a fine idea. Altai deviated from the main river down a narrower and shallow tributary. Their boat scraped against a sandbar more than once, but no real damage was done. It would be more than a few hours until they arrived in the village Po spoke of.

While the panda decided Little Brother could use a lie-down, and thus took him into the little hut on the main deck, Altai and Tai Lung stayed above deck, the former to steer, and the other to keep watch. The latter need not have bothered; the way was peaceful, and he felt relaxed for the first time in weeks. Altai commented on this, to which Tai Lung replied,

"We just need to get back to the valley, I can plan from there," Tai Lung said. He rested his cheek on his palm and sighed. "The worst is that not only do I have this Koshchei fellow to worry about, but now this Zang Deshi character..."

"What's that about Zang Deshi?" Altai asked, looking very interested.

The snow leopard turned to the rhino. "Did you know him?"

"Knew of him, never met him in person. Vachir knew him, they were in the same graduating class at the military academy, but as I understand, they were never really close. Why are you worried about it?"

"Evidently he's trying to bring me to justice for murdering the Anvil of Heaven."

Altai set his jaw. He looked dark and stern. "That's on some pretty shaky legal ground. On the one hand, I can see why he thinks it is murder, but we're not talking about civilians. The Anvil of Heaven was nothing more than highly-trained killing machines capable of taking on the entire Mongol army alone."

"Nothing more than highly-trained killing machines, he says?" Tai Lung sarcastically retorted.

"It can also be argued that they all died in combat, which isn't exactly referred to as 'murder' in our legal system..."

"But my actions resulted – many times directly – in their deaths."

"Understand that each and every last one of them took the job of guarding you knowing full well there was a chance they could be killed should you ever escape. Sure, the chance of that wasn't as likely as the chances of being killed in a battle, and many I knew got complacent after a while, but almost all of them still knew there was a chance. The interesting thing is...if the Empire were really concerned with bringing you to justice, the Emperor would have carted you off and executed you long before now."

Tai Lung couldn't help but swallow hard and rub his neck self-consciously. But he noted Altai's grave expression, leading him to ask about it.

Altai sighed, "Not really my business, and I gave my word...but maybe Vachir can forgive me this one infraction, wherever he is. The truth is, Vachir hated Zang. He said Zang was 'the sorriest excuse for an officer I've ever seen'. Zang was thrilled by the idea of having power, and lusted for it. While he enjoyed doling out discipline to his troops, in reality, he had very little self-discipline."

Tai Lung seemed to know what he meant: "He's a gambler."

The rhino nodded. "I don't know the whole story, only what Vachir ever told me, but apparently Zang was up to his ears in debt when he graduated. Unlike other officers who graduated, went on to get married, raise families, live in expensive houses, Zang was on the brink of poverty and ruin for years because he was always gambling. This was a man who knew odds and ratios, and that often came to his advantage in battle, and won him awards and patches on his uniform. But don't you think it odd that he was in the service as long as Vachir, and Vachir made it all the way to Commander while Zang stayed a low-ranking captain?"

"His superiors couldn't trust him," Tai Lung realized.

"That's my guess. And here's another: he's probably only going after you for whatever cash reward there is on your head. I don't know why there would be any; after you were imprisoned, there was no need for a wanted poster to be made, and after your escape, there wasn't enough time to make one of you before the Dragon Warrior defeated you. And you were presumed dead for a year before you suddenly came back on the scene, and once word got out that you had teamed up with the Dragon Warrior and Furious Five to defeat the Jiao clan, most of the people in the capital city thought that arresting you would be foolish, considering the great good you had done since your reformation.

"Though I'm not telling you to underestimate him, Zang isn't as big a threat as Koshchei is. He might think he is, and he might want you to think he is, but he isn't. You're a far better fighter than he is, and he knows it, so he's going to fight dirty in order to win."

Tai Lung wished that had been encouraging, but knowing this much about a man he knew next to nothing about helped. Altai was a fountain of knowledge, though it did lead to the snow leopard getting rather suspicious...

"You know quite a bit about law and philosophy," he said not too long after.

"So?"

"You're a soldier."

"I'm a man of many interests. I also like poetry and gardening."

Tai Lung stared at him for a moment, then said, "Strangely, that doesn't surprise me."

Altai just smirked.

Before long, they came upon the village Po had mentioned, and when they arrived, Tai Lung was surprised to find the entire village was made up of giant pandas. There was the odd goat or sheep, to be sure, but these were mostly merchants passing through onto their next destination. The inhabitants of this farming village, just a little ways off in a tributary that led to the main river, were all pandas. And Po seemed right at home.

To say the panda had been there before wasn't quite putting it right. The villagers all looked delighted to see him, some even hugged him. And when he introduced his companions, not only were they treated to a feast like kings, but Little Brother got the medicine and care he needed, and then some. Altai never left the child's side the whole night. By the next morning, the red panda cub had made a complete turnaround, thanks to the help of an elderly healer who smiled more than spoke.

They loaded up their little boat with enough provisions to get them to the Valley, and Altai made sure to stock up on medicines, bandages, and anything else they could possibly need. The last one to get on the boat was Po, who had held back for one last goodbye.

Tai Lung watched in surprise as Po leaned forward and hugged the village elder, who patted the Dragon Warrior on the shoulder and whispered something to him. Then the green-robed elder handed Po a bag, and bowed to him. Po bowed lower to the elder, then turned to leave, waving his goodbyes.

"What was that about?" the snow leopard asked when Po got back to the boat.

"Just saying goodbye to my father," Po said as he waved from the deck, the village swiftly going out of view as the current took them away.

Tai Lung froze. Then he stared at Po. Then he stared at the elder panda who still stood on the pier, smiling at them and waving. Then the feline turned and stared back at Po.

Po stared back at him. "What? I say somethin'?"

Tai Lung stuttered, "Did...did you just say that panda was your father?"

"Yeah. He's my biological dad."

"Since when have you known your biological father?"

"Since right after I fought Lord Shen."

"Fought who?"

"Lord Shen, the peacock? Gongmen City? How can you not remember this?"

"I wasn't there, Po!"

Now it was Po's turn to look confused. "You weren't? You sure?"

"Po, when the devil did you go to Gongmen City?"

"Um...about three years ago? Maybe four? It was right after I became the Dragon Warrior. Lord Shen, who was the banished son of the king in that city, had developed a weapon that could stop kung fu, so me and the Five went there to defeat him, and we did. So kung fu's saved, I found out I was adopted, and everyone lived happily ever after. Where were you for all this?"

"Judging by the timeline, probably presumed dead," the feline snapped.

Po paused to think it over, do some quick calculations in his head, then groaned, "Oh yeah, that's right! It was right after I defeated Lord Shen - not Jiao Shen, different Shen - then I found out how I became an orphan and got adopted, then I tracked down my biological father, we met, and we've been keeping in touch, though, uh, not so much on my end. Been pretty busy. And that's right - then right after I met him, you came back into the picture. Wow, you really missed a lot during that year."

Still feeling sore he had been left out of this, Tai Lung said, tail twitching in annoyance, "Anything else I need to know before we get any further?"

"Hmm...oh yeah! Tigress is okay with hugs."

"Well forget it, I'm not hugging her."

Po shrugged. "Suit yourself. She's actually a lot nicer than she looks. She puts up this hardcore image, you know, because she's afraid of getting hurt. She's a lot like you. Maybe that's why I got along so well with you when our friendship started: thanks to Tigress, I knew why you were so hard. You'd been hurt before...a whole lot. I figured that, just like her, you just needed someone to listen, someone to empathize with, you know?"

Tai Lung knew Altai was giving them a significant look, but thankfully the rhino was busy with Little Brother and untying the boat from the mooring and pushing off to follow the river's current. The snow leopard took in a deep breath, and asked the first of two big questions:

"So what about Mr. Ping?"

"What about him?" Po asked.

"Well...you've found your real father..."

"I never said that panda back was my real father. I just said he was my father."

Tai Lung stared at him. "Alright, I don't follow."

Po sighed and explained: "Look, the panda back there, he's my father. But Mr. Ping...he's my dad. He may not be my father, but to me, he'll always be Dad. He was the one who raised me, who cared for me, who fed me, clothed me, put a roof over my head...and sure, maybe my father loves me, but Mr. Ping truly loves me. He didn't have to take me in, but he did anyway, and he raised me as his own son, and loves me in spite of all my - let's face it, many - faults. That means more to me than I can really say, 'cause you know me, I'm not too good with words. I guess what I'm trying to say is...any guy can be a father, but it takes real guts to be a dad. You know what I'm saying? Am I making any sense?"

Slowly, the snow leopard started nodding. "Yes...yes, but how does one know that they'll be a good father? Er, dad?"

Po shrugged. "You don't. But what my dad always said to me, Po, he said, I may not be perfect, but I do the best job I can. So...I guess that means that you shouldn't try to be perfect when it comes to parenting...just try to be good. The rest will follow." The panda smiled at his friend. "You're going to be a great dad, Tai. I know you're afraid of screwing up..."

You have no idea, Tai Lung thought.

You're going to be fine.

That shocked them both. Tai Lung held his head in his hands, feeling like a migraine had suddenly flared up, pulsing and throbbing from his temples across his forehead and behind his eyes. It blinded him, causing momentary panic, and he began to feel like he would be violently ill. This was a migraine, he told himself, and he knew by instinct that it wouldn't go away until that mental link Sun Bear had talked about was fully established. Po's voice echoed in his head. You're going to be fine. Again and again, Po's message got through. The barrier had been broken...hadn't it?

Tai Lung knelt in the bottom of the boat, still holding his head. No, no the barrier wasn't completely broken. It was weakened, but it wasn't broken.

Tell him, his mind screamed at him. Tell him, TELL HIM.

Tai Lung gritted his teeth against the pain, and looked up into Po's eyes. "Po...there's something I need to tell you."

At once, Altai secured the rudder, took Little Brother's hand and both of them retreated to the boat's cabin, closing the door behind them. This was it. Now or never.

Po seemed to sense how important this was. He gave Tai Lung his full attention as they sat at the bow of the boat, both of them staring out ahead of the water, the river that was swiftly taking them home. Tai Lung remembered another river, one that had taken him partway towards Chorh-Gom. He remembered seeing flashes of sun and moon reflecting off the water through the bars of his cage. Wordlessly, Tai Lung reached out for his friend's hand, and as soon as he touched Po's hand, the panda got the image in his head of the cage, the chains around his wrists, feeling the hate raging inside him, as if he had experienced them all himself.

Tai Lung took in a shaky breath and began, "I have never been completely honest with you about Chorh-Gom..."

"Tai, if you don't want to say anything..."

"Please."

It was the way he said it that caught his attention and made Po close his mouth and listen. Again, the panda was transported to the interior of the prison, again feeling the chains on his wrists, the restraint on his back, heavy, like it was crushing his body. Gravel dug into his knees, and he could barely raise his head. He was bowed there, forced into a repetant pose, but this only hurt his pride further from the humiliation.

"Kneeling there was humiliating," Tai Lung said, feeling the ache in his brain disappearing the more he talked, the more he peeled away the layers of his mind and let Po in. "But that's nothing compared to what happened next..."

Through Tai Lung's memory, Po saw the rhinos coming across the gangplank. Three of them. They weren't armed. And why would they be? But Po didn't like the look of them. He didn't like the way they moved, the way they stared at him. The one in front grabbed a handful of fur at the back of his head and yanked. Po felt the pain shooting across his scalp, even as he knew that Tai Lung had felt all this pain instead. Po realized what was happening. First, that when Tai Lung physically touched him, Po could experience what Tai Lung experienced, through the snow leopard's eyes...which meant that mental link Sun Bear talked about had been at least partially opened. Second...Po was horrified to see what the other rhinos were doing.

"What did they—"

"The worst thing possible," Tai Lung answered. The snow leopard pulled his hand away just as the lead rhino made his first move.

"Po, the thing I never told you, the thing that I've kept secret for so long..." Tai Lung took in a deep, shuddering breath, and exhaled when he spoke. "I was raped in prison."

Po instinctively grabbed his hand, giving it a firm squeeze, which he hoped would offer some form of comfort. He immediately regretted that decision. He was transported back to that day, that first day, that first time...and it felt like his entire body was on fire from the agony. He felt himself screaming even though he knew it wasn't his throat that was screaming itself raw. They were laughing. Those rhinos were laughing, like this was some game.

Aww, I don't think he likes it rough…one was saying.

Another chimed in, That'll change; there's a lot he's gonna come to like, or else.

Think the Commander minds? one asked.

Who d'ya think gave us the clearance? Ya hear that, kitten? No one cares about you - this is how much they care, enough to see you like this. If those people in the Valley could see you now…

Tai Lung suddenly broke away, running his claws up and down his arms as he shivered violently. Po was right there with him, but he was more horrified by this than by anything he had yet experienced. He was horrified. He was nauseous. He was...he was angry. Blinded, he couldn't see anything else but red, red-hot rage. All the panda saw were those rhinos, their faces, the way they laughed. Then Po realized...that was the root of it. Tai Lung had certainly told him the worst of it, but from that short, torturous trip into the snow leopard's memories, Po learned just how bad it had been.

Chorh-Gom had been very rough on Tai Lung; it wasn't just the verbal, emotional, psychological and physical torture that inevitably preceded it, but the rape—that had been his breaking point. It made sense now. That alone was the reason he had been so ruthless, so violent during his escape. He made sure the first rhinos to go down were the ones who had done the reprehensible deed in the first place; they had taken him, violated him, and laughed when he started to cry.

And Po saw their faces again, when he touched Tai Lung's arm to let him know he was still there. He saw himself through Tai Lung's eyes: the escape, the brutality, sheer animalistic rage, the desire to break free and the instinctive drive to survive. Those faces...those same faces were the first he killed. He had no qualms tossing them off the bridges that criss-crossed the inner sanctum of the fortress-turned-prison. And Po wanted them to suffer. He scared himself with how badly he wanted those guards to pay for what they had done.

Po jerked himself away just in time. His heart was hammering in his chest and he was starting to feel light-headed.

He noticed that Tai Lung was still kneeling there, in the bow of the boat, reliving the nightmare so vividly that he had crossed his arms, leaving deep scratches there, as if he were trying to scrub away the feel of their hands on him.

"Stop," Po said, grabbing his friend's hands. "Stop - TAI LUNG, STOP!"

Then Tai Lung was shaken out of his nightmare, panting heavily, and he was back on the boat, sitting next to the only friend he had ever truly trusted. Tai Lung hung his head, and realized that he had scratched himself so deeply he had started to bleed in some places. Not severely, but it was still worrisome. He hadn't scratched himself like this in a long time. The last time it had happened, Mei Xing swore she would declaw him if he ever did it again.

Letting out another shaky breath, he explained, "I'm sorry...I thought I had control over that. There's still this...this urge to just...just get it off, get it off my skin, even years later. It comes out of nowhere, and leaves just as suddenly as it comes. I was, what, twenty-two when it had started, and twenty-seven when I learned to block it out? I can't even remember anymore. It had been about five years of torture before the guards got bored with me, and only a few weeks later, they had begun to fear me..."

Po knew why it had stopped. It was his eyes, had to be. It was the intense and utter loathing, the message behind them: "You'd better pray to every ancestor in your family that I never get loose." Tai Lung probably didn't see those guards again until the day of his escape.

The panda asked, "And Altai? Where did he come in...?"

"He caught them one night, tried to get them courtmarshalled, but that didn't happen," the snow leopard explained. "Eventually they brought more friends, anyone who wanted a piece of...well, you get it." Tai Lung sat back on his rump, drawing his knees to his chest. "Altai cleaned me up, gave me a hot meal, swore he'd get justice for me. He threatened each and every single one of them that if he caught them, or heard of them being down there with me...that he would kill them. Yes, he threatened to kill them for coming anywhere near me. He explained to Vachir that 'it jeopardizes the integrity of the prisoner's constraints if there are too many down there, he could get loose, no matter how good those constraints are'...a sort of too many cooks in the kitchen buggering something up, as he later put it. Vachir bought it for a while. I think he too knew that it was only a matter of time...even if he never admitted it...

"Altai made that pledge to help me, then he left. I waited over ten years, and he never came back. The abuse had largely stopped, but by then, I was just waiting to get out. I thought that he would tell the right authorities, that he would tell Oogway what was happening, I always thought it was because I couldn't trust him...now I know he was kicked out of the army for trying to help me. I didn't matter, so his disobeying orders to help me...his situation is my fault."

"No it's not," Po said. "None of this was your fault."

"The rampage..."

"How were you supposed to know that would happen?" Po shouted. "No one in a thousand years would expect that!"

Tai Lung looked away from him and stared at the boards that made up the deck. "Some days...I wonder if that was divine retribution for the crimes I committed..."

"NO ONE deserves that!" Po shouted at him. He grabbed Tai Lung by the front of his robes and yanked him up to shake him. The snow leopard was shocked to see the fury in the panda's face. "NEVER let anyone tell you that you deserved that, because it is not true. You are not to blame for it! STOP beating yourself up about it, because you couldn't have prevented it, you couldn't have predicted it, and the only ones who should be ashamed are those guards!"

"Don't you know why I never told you?"

"I can take a guess..."

"I..." Tai Lung sighed. "I thought that telling you would mean you would shun me."

Po's grip on his robe-front slackened with his jaw. "What? Why would you think that?"

"Look at what happens to women who are raped: their entire families are shamed, ostracized. Most of those women kill themselves to save themselves from bearing the shame."

"Is that what you thought?"

Tai Lung didn't answer right away.

"Tai Lung," Po said more forcefully, his fist gripping the cloth harder. "Is that what you planned?"

He avoided a direct answer: "Does it matter now? I don't feel that way anymore. But if word of this got out...I would be ruined, my family would be ruined, our good name gone forever. And what would happen to me?"

"We'd stand by you."

Tai Lung looked at his friend and saw the stone-cold sobriety in Po's determined green eyes as the panda's grip slackened again. "We would all stand by you. Me, the Five, Dalang, Mei, Su, your dad, my dad, Shifu, Auntie...we would all stand by you, I know it. We love you. You think we're going to forsake you because of that? And think about it: with that many people who got your back...who would dare say any different?"

Po should have known when he had first seen those golden feline eyes that there was much strength, but also a lot of pain, that the snow leopard tried desperately to hide. In some ways, he had seen it the first time they fought, and then every successive time they met after that, he saw more and more of what lay behind those eyes. More and more the hardness in them dissipated, and more and more, that hardness, that anger began to be replaced with joy, with love, with contentment. When he had first met him, Po had never seen the snow leopard smile. Sure, he smirked, sneered, jeered, and other such sarcastic twitches of the lips...but when Po first saw Tai Lung smile...it was perhaps one of the most heartwarming things the panda had yet seen.

"Tai Lung, I'm only going to say this once, because it only needs to be said once: you. Are. Awesome. You're as close to a big brother as I'm ever going to get. If you think that I'm going to think differently about you just because of something like this...then you don't know me as well as I thought you did."

Suddenly, and quite amazingly...it didn't sting as much as it had before. Tai Lung wasn't breaking out into a cold sweat, not trying to run away, not feeling dizzy, or nauseous. He felt...he felt like it was water passing under a bridge, just as surely as the river flowed beneath their feet. The experiences he'd had since his escape, since his reformation, seemed to soothe the hurts and injuries he had suffered.

Instead of feeling the rough hands abusing his body, he now felt Mei Xing's hands, caressing tenderly, running her fingers through the fur on the back of his head while she kissed him, her hand over his heart as they slept curled up together, her hand clutching his whenever she was worried...he was her rock as much as she was his.

Instead of the jeers and insults, it was Dalang's jokes, the pranks he played. Now it was the Nunchuck Cake incident, the bawdy jokes about Tai Lung's prowess, which were thrown right back at the tiger along with a few choice swears while the rest of the family laughed. Now it was Su Lin's sunny smile when she greeted him in the morning. It was Auntie's own brand of tough love, but one that told him that she loved him as dearly as any mother loves a son. It was Sonam's rough-housing with his adult son, the pride in his eye when he looked at him every day.

It was Po's complete and total acceptance of him, the same smile the panda gave him when they met the second time in that dark courtyard...had it really only been three years? It felt like a century ago, while the attacks had felt more recent. But the more Tai Lung thought about it, the less it hurt. What had happened to him in prison no longer seemed so debilitating, so degrading. Though he could never forget it happened, sharing this moment with someone was a huge step in his recovery.

And when Po touched his shoulder again, Tai Lung saw those same events played back through Po's eyes. He saw himself as the panda, shocked to see the snow leopard alive, overjoyed to see him alive! He saw him training Mei and Su, he saw him cooking his first meals and eventually screwing up, but he now saw that no matter what mistakes he made...Po never judged him. When he screwed up in cooking, Po never faulted him for it. When he was impatient, Po was patient for him. When he was scared and knew he needed to keep up a front for the good of others, Po wasn't afraid of showing his fear. Po respected him, Po idolized him, Po...loved him. He loved him as a brother, as family, as close as two friends could possibly get. Through Po's eyes, he relived those moments. He relived the Jiao War, and felt Po's own panic when he watched himself fall on the battlefield. He relived their victory, and Po's elation that it meant a victory not for himself, but for Tai Lung.

Before he could think it, Po stopped him: You are not selfish. Don't think that. You have given more of yourself than anyone could ask. Just once, please, let someone else hold you up.

I'm scared, he thought.

I know. Remember what Sonam told you once? When you can't walk, you crawl, and when you can't do that...

Tai Lung finished the thought: You get someone to carry you.

Po nodded and smiled. "So, just this once...let me carry you."

He couldn't help it. He started to cry. Po hugged him, and Tai Lung hugged him back.

It was alright. He knew, he knew now, and this wasn't his dirty little secret now. He had someone to confide in, and knowing that took a huge weight off.

Inside the cabin, Altai let out the breath he'd been holding. Little Brother astutely guessed that something had changed. But the rhino only offered the child a playful tousling of the fur on his head, which made the cub giggle and grin. Things were going to be alright, the cub realized. The big rhino didn't look so sad or stern anymore. And it sounded like the big kitty and the panda were happy too. As scary as it had been lately, he knew that things were going to be okay.

---

The Chin family was the first to notice something amiss. Fog was rare this time of year, but it descended upon the village overnight. When the rabbits opened their shutters in the morning, Mrs. Chin kept young Fu far from the window as she peeked out. There were rough men outside her home. They crowded the streets, and more and more trickled in over the course of the morning. They looked like they had come far, with ragged clothes and many weapons. These were not merchants. Mrs. Chin closed her shutters and kept the front door locked.

Mr. Ping was the next to notice. The goose wisely kept quiet, but offered his usual hospitality to the brutes and ruffians who came to eat noodles. When Dalang awoke that morning to finish his training at the Jade Palace, Mr. Ping stopped him, and wordlessly pointed out into the courtyard. Dalang moved back into the house and told Tigress to take the back door out of the house, to avoid trouble. Meanwhile, the tiger also steadfastly ordered Su Lin to stay indoors, lest the same men be tempted. Su Lin protested, but Dalang was in no mood to argue.

"I need you to keep Mei Xing calm. I haven't told her they're here."

"They're early," Su Lin said.

"I know. That's what bothers me. Keep out of sight. I'll work in the kitchen today and keep an eye on them. If any of them cause trouble, I'll be around to put an end to it."

"Do you think they will?" she asked.

"I'm kinda hoping the whole 'huge Amur tiger with the nasty glare' thing will keep 'em in line, but you never know."

Fortunately for Dalang, the plan worked. He chopped vegetables and formed dumplings in plain sight, even sharpening his knives in front of the rougher customers. The regulars were used to the tiger's habits, so many didn't bat an eye to see him sharpening every kitchen knife he had until he could literally split a hair on the edge. The newcomers, on the other hand, watched him very warily.

"Whatever you are planning," Mr. Ping whispered to the tiger as they worked side by side, "I hope it works."

Dalang paused, his hands forming the beginnings of their specialty of the day: noodle soup dumplings. "How much do you know?" he whispered back.

"Enough," the goose answered. "You can trust me."

"I know that."

"Then know that I am at your disposal, should you need it."

Dalang bit his lip then glanced down at the goose. Mr. Ping was looking back at him, expectantly. "I didn't want to get you involved. Po would kill me if anything happened to you."

"Well, young man," the goose scoffed after glancing over his shoulder at the ruffians in his restaurant. "I'm involved whether I like it or not. I know about this battle that's coming. Don't look so surprised! This is my house too, and you think I don't know whenever you have meetings here? The Chins have also been keeping me up to date."

Dalang noticed that Mr. Chin was there to pick up take-away food for his family. The excuse he gave in front of the ruffians was that his wife was sick, and it was best she not cook and exhast herself. Mr. Ping explained in hushed tones: "That is code for training; Mrs. Chin has been at the Lotus school with the other women. I, on the other hand, have not been training with the other villagers. I don't need to."

"You sure?" Dalang asked dubiously. Then he jumped when the goose pulled out the largest cleaver in the kitchen, then proceeded to chop the radishes and carrots as swiftly, deftly, and with as much force as the tiger would use. When the goose was done chopping vegetables for the large soup cauldron, he flung the knife with a flick of his wing, and the knife was buried deep in the cutting board, still quivering from the force of the throw. Dalang swallowed hard, out of instinct.

Mr. Ping offered him a smile, as if nothing was amiss. "What did I tell you? I don't need to."

Dalang looked between the beaming goose and the cleaver still embedded in the cutting board. "Good to know."

Then the goose turned to look back at the clientele with a sigh. "How long do you think?"

The tiger turned to deliver the soup dumplings on a tray. He looked out at the courtyard, noting how many were warriors, and how many were likely armed to the teeth. "Not long now. Not long at all."

---

If there was one thing Mrs. He detested, it was patrols. She had come to an age that she could retire, and had done well for herself: put her only son through the Li Da kung fu academy, now he was Master Crane of the Furious Five...and married to that scaly freak.

Oh well, at least he was a graduate. She could live with that. She supposed that, at her age, she could live with not having grandchildren to honor her once she joined the ancestors. That didn't mean she had to be happy about it.

She had heard of a disturbance by the guard tower; truthfully, she hadn't heard anything for days, and as someone who patroled the Thread of Hope against invasion, not hearing even one status report was cause for concern.

When she got there, the guards weren't there. That was very strange. The place was immaculate. It looked like it had been thoroughly cleaned; the smell of anitseptic and disinfectants was overpowering. It looked like the entire place had been cleaned out, like the guards had been ordered somewhere else and cleaned up the place before they left. The entire place, first and second floor, was spotless. Not a cobweb or dust bunny in sight. Even the cellar, usually stocked with provisions, was empty. There had been enough food down there to last the winter.

Something was very, very wrong. She knew it in her bones. She got out of there and spread her wings to fly to the Valley to warn them of trouble. She only made it a few yards in the air when she chanced to look down into the mists...and spied something on the cliff wall.

This wasn't unusual. Sometimes merchants who came this way dropped things that landed on some outcropping. Usually, the Crane Clan would return the articles. More occasionally...it was a body. Usually a poor soul who had strayed too close to the edge; others were suicide victims.

Mrs. He sighed. She really hoped it wasn't the latter, but, she needed to investigate before she went anywhere. She brought her wings tight against her body and dived fearlessly into the mist, unfurling her wings as she drew close...and she gasped.

It was a body, like she'd guessed. But unlike the countless numbers before him, this body was moving.

"Heavens above!" she gasped as the body turned his beaten face up to her. One arm was up, the hand still wrapped around the knife that he had sunk into the bare rock to slow his descent. There was a long, thin line cut deep into the cliff above, ending at the knife hilt in his hand. He was beaten, bloody and bruised, and looked like he had lost one hell of a fight. But the look in his eyes just broke her heart to see...and as hard-hearted as this job required her to be, that said something.

He was a wolf, a northerner by the look of his clothes. She recognized the knife: Lan clan of wolves, from Haijin. She recognized the face from wanted posters. She also recognized the expressions that crossed his light brown eyes. First he reached out his hand to her, as if to ask for help...then he thought better of it, and she saw that hope die behind his eyes...and he lay down and closed them.

She huffed. "Not on my watch, young man!" She flapped her wings to get reinforcements; ten minutes later, she and two other members of her clan picked up Lan Duo and carried him to the empty guard tower for treatment.

So wrapped up in making sure her guest didn't die in the night, Mrs. He completely forgot to fly to the Valley to warn them of trouble.

---

And there we are, 37 pages in MS Word for you. Hope this kept you occupied until the next chapter. I can't guarantee how long it will take to get it posted, but I hope to finish this fic by January. Gives me a good timeline.

As always, please read and review. Constructive Feedback is always appreciated (and I need to be told when my work sucks. Keeps me humble).