(Thirteen Chapters, woo! I never expected to get this far. Well yes I did, just not this fast. Well, Shu Ai is alive! Finally I bring back the Main Character! Stay with me for the next few ones which will come up some time when I think of what to do next! :D)

Chapter 13: Shu Ai Reveals Himself

"Brother…?! I…Is th…that you?!" Ping stared at the eyes of the mane-less Lion. He noticed quickly that his left eye was blind but looked at both of them.
"It's been a while since we've met eye-to-eye. Well, eyes-to-eye to be exact," Zhang Liao, or to be specific Shu Ai, retained some of his personality.
Ping was not sure what to do. Was this really Shu Ai, his brother?

Ping slowly held his paw out to touch Liao's face. Liao felt the soft touch of Ping's paw on his face and held it with his own paw.

"We thought… I thought you were… dead…" Ping stuttered, knowing that this is Shu Ai.

"Oh, I should explain that…" Liao, or Shu, replied honestly and began his tale.

"You see, after the ceremony…"

"Tai Lung! What you are doing isn't the right way!" Shu Ai was still 15 years old. The Ceremony had just finished and he was trying and failing to console his then friend and rival Tai Lung. He was fighting him and at a serious disadvantage. Tai Lung was the best, compared to Lu Bu by Shu Ai himself. However, it was not skill that guided Tai Lung now, but anger and betrayal. This was the first time Shu fought someone in a rage.

"I was denied my right! My destiny! You don't understand!" Tai Lung said in a rage, attacking his friend and rival. Shu managed to survive and block some of them, but most of them got through. Even his arms and paws that blocked them were starting to bruise. He was sure that he was going to lose. But he had to try to calm Tai Lung.

"Tai, please listen to me! I understand how you feel, but this isn't the way…! Aaarg!" Ta Lung managed to injure Shu by attacking his face.
"Aaaahhh!!! My eye! I'm… going blind!" Shu's left eye had been struck and he covered it with a paw and was starting to scream in pain. He tried to focus on Tai Lung.

Everyone around them was running away in fear due to Tai Lung's sudden rage. Shu Ai stayed to try and hold off Tai Lung for them to escape. He wondered what took so long for security or those able to fight took for the evacuation. There were too many civilians and Tai Lung was capable of a massacre.

Tai Lung's face soon softened up a little after seeing his friend Shu Ai injured. Shu looked at his friend with his remaining eye, still completely focused yet losing his sense of humor.

"Isn't there anything I can say to change your mind?" Shu asked.
"No," Tai Lung simply replied as he ran at Shu for his final attack.

Shu managed to block two strikes from Tai Lung yet this left his entire body from chest to stomach exposed.
Tai Lung saw this quickly and used his specialty, the Nerve Attack. He struck at vital points of Shu and heard a gasp. He started to fall forward. Waiting for him were the arms of his friend, Tai Lung. He managed to

"T…there's st…still good in you… Show-Off…" Shu stuttered before he closed his eyes and fell into unconsciousness.
It was said that Tai Lung shed a tear as he did not want to hurt his friend. He held his dear friend close before carrying him. Shu had told him once of a Kenpo School that he favored over Wing Chun and the Jade Palace. Tai Lung, able to control himself, decided to leave his friend at the doorsteps of this school. On his way to this school, however, a terrified civilian sees him carrying Shu Ai and assumed that he was dead.

"Shu Ai… is dead! SHU IS DEAD!!!" the terrified civilian screamed in terror as he began to flee, still screaming that Shu Ai the Lion of the Valley was dead.

This angered Tai Lung further as he dropped his friend's body. He had injured the civilian yet he controlled himself. He then proceeded to the Jade Palace where Shifu tried and failed to defeat Tai Lung. Oogway then proceeded to defeat him.

Disciples and monks of the Kenpo School were sent to help with the evacuation and found Shu's motionless body. They quickly identified that he wasn't dead and could be saved. Most were dispatched to help with the evacuation while some proceeded to bring Shu to the school for treatment. Shu awoke a few weeks later and repaid his debt by becoming one of their best students. His shame however in unable to protect the civilians and stop Tai Lung made his heart heavy. He also worried that he couldn't protect his little brother, Ping. He shaved his mane off months into his training and began to wear an iron mask. This was to remind him of his shame and to continue to try and avoid a similar event. The disciples told him of what happened and he quickly nodded in understanding.

"…and that's what happened. I assumed someone spread the word that I was dead. I've been hearing that The Lion of the Valley was killed. No, they're wrong. I was just lucky," Shu admitted.

Ping took all of this information in. He closed his eyes in deep thought.
"Now, I have a big debt. I'm sorry for… everything, Ping, and…" Shu never finished his sentence as Ping hugged him close and tightly.
"I've missed you, brother…" Ping stuttered, having missed his brother for a long time.
"Four years, little brother… Yet still long, I've missed you too… I'll make it up to you…" Shu said, hugging his brother after a long time of being apart.

"You could start with the kid whose scaring everyone…" Ping replied jokingly.
"Heh, I'll get the old man first… Then I'll see how scary she is… Hey, maybe she'll be your love!" Shu teased him.
"Eeew, she's too young…"