A/N: Thanks again, Yira, for the inspiration and encouragement to keep this story going!

Zhou was 10 years old now. He did nearly all the care for the new horses and helped in the rice field. He secretly hoped for a younger sibling, but didn't say anything. He also really wanted his own horse. His father was teaching him martial arts, archery and sword fighting.

Mulan began feeling that same nausea and fatigue she had felt in the army. Nearly every morning she threw up. Her bleeding was late. This time she would be able to actually enjoy carrying a child.

Fa Li was also excited that another grandchild was on the way. She had always hoped to be at Mulan's side through a childbirth and now she would finally be able to. But, at the same time, she felt sad that Fa Zhou and Grandma Fa would never get to meet this grandchild.

Zhou was ecstatic about getting a younger sibling. He couldn't wait. He talked all the time about things he could do with a younger brother or sister. He wanted to teach him or her all about horses and rice and martial arts. Since his mama knew how to fight, he thought every girl should know how to do martial arts and use a sword and fire arrows.

When Mulan told Shang, he was excited. He felt like he could finally redeem himself for when he had continually tried to end Mulan's first pregnancy. He had punched and kneed her abdomen frequently, since it was glaring evidence of what he was doing to her and didn't want anyone else to know. This time he was looking forward to his child being born and vowed to be supportive of Mulan as much as he possibly could.

The first time Mulan felt the baby moving, it brought back memories of laying in her tent after Shang would leave and feeling Zhou moving and kicking. She could still feel the pain of him punching and kneeing her belly every day, usually causing her to vomit and bleed. Would she ever be free of those terrible memories?

Before this pregnancy, her panic episodes were diminishing to just one a night 3 or 4 days a week. But as she learned of her pregnancy and her belly grew, they became more frequent. Every night, at least once or twice, it happened. Shang seemed to understand why she was waking up screaming more often now, and was there to comfort her as always. It helped when she saw how much love he showed the new child when he talked to or kissed her belly or placed his hand on her to feel the baby kicking at him.

She remembered how terrified she had felt about giving birth and raising a child alone, a child conceived against her will. She hadn't wanted to be a mother at all, until Zhou was born and she fell in love with him immediately.

Five months before Mulan estimated the baby would come, Shang had to leave to train recruits at Wu Zhong. He would only be gone for four months, so both hoped the baby would wait until he got back.

His return was not a day too soon. When Mulan started getting labor pains that same night, Shang sent Zhou to get the village midwife, who had also delivered her. Instead of giving birth in a strange village with three women she didn't know, Mulan now had the support of Shang and her mother by her side. Instead of being in labor for 3 days like she had been with Zhou, she gave birth to a baby girl in just 10 hours. Her and Shang named her Mingzhu, meaning "bright pearl".

Zhou assumed the role of protective big brother immediately. The first time he held Mingzhu, he told her all about how he was gonna watch over her and make sure no one ever hurt her. Watching him, Shang was proud of his son and the man he was becoming. He wished his father had raised him the way he was striving to raise Zhou.

While he had been at Wu Zhong training recruits this last time, he had made a trip alone to the Tung Shou pass. He found the valley where his father's army had been slaughtered and found that the sword he'd stuck in the snow with the General's helmet on it was still there. Even after over 10 years it all was undisturbed, both the valley and the hill overlooking it where the village had once stood.

He knelt in front of the sword and helmet and spoke out loud to this father as if he was there.

"After you were killed here, I became everything I hated in you. I became violent and angry and terrorized an innocent woman for months as I had seen you do. I justified the way I acted by telling myself that you had been the same way. You had never treated women as human beings with rights and emotions of their own, and neither did I.

Then I realized how wrong I was, and how wrong you were. A pregnant woman who was a lone survivor of a Hun attack on her village gave birth while we were taking her to her family. I realized the terrible way my child and his mother were going to remember me as I listened to this widow grieving her lost husband and promising to tell her child of the brave man his father had been.

After that, I never touched her again. I didn't want to carry your legacy any longer. I hated you for how you treated the women in your life and I didn't want my son to grow up hating me.

I'm a different man now. My son is growing up to know every life has worth, man or woman. Everything I teach him, is the opposite of what you taught me.

Another child will be born to us soon. If we have a boy, he will learn the same ways. If the child is a girl, she will learn she has worth and beauty greater than what most men may see in her. The man who marries her will have to show he truly knows how to love and cherish her. She will never marry a man like you or like the man I used to be."

He stood up and looked over the valley. A bird swooped down and landed on the ground near him. It looked at him for a moment and almost appeared to nod it's head, then flew away singing a sad cry.

His father. He had sent him a sign that he saw the man he had raised him to be and the better man he had become. It flew back around by him again, this time singing a more hopeful cry. It sounded like the birds' songs you hear just before dawn, when they are all calling the sun to awaken.

In the bird's cry, Shang heard hope and joy that the Li's legacy of pain, terror and abuse had ended. His father had only carried on what had been modeled for him by his father, who had seen it modeled by his own father.

In Shang's heart, a new day had dawned.