The tremendous appetite Po had built up during his furious run down the mountainside vanished as he stepped through the big hole in the wall and saw the dozens of frozen soldiers littering the ground, covered in a thin layer of snowflakes from the light weather.
"What the heck?" Po entered the courtyard. Being the number one fan of kung fu meant it was obvious to him that the men had been nerve attacked, but there had to be nearly a hundred people. What kind of kung fu master had to bodacity to nerve attack dozens of people at once?
Po aimed his modified crossbow ahead of him, just in case whoever was behind this was still around. The Yeti couldn't have done this, otherwise it would have done the same thing to the dozens of other people it had attacked.
This frightened Po more than anything. If the Yeti didn't take out all these people, then what the hell did?
It was quiet. Very quiet. Po wondered if the men before him were even still alive.
Po spotted a familiar shape and ran to its side.
"Master Eagle Jr.!" Po cried.
Master Eagle didn't respond. His eyes stared up at the Dragon Warrior with just a hint of recognition.
"Hey, what happened?" No answer. "Oh right, you're paralyzed. Sorry. Look, I don't know how to fix this, but Shifu does. I'm gonna go find him, so just sit tight."
If Eagle Jr. could still move his eyes, he would have rolled them.
"I'll be right back!" Po rushed for the doors, taking care not to trip over the many bodies on the ground. He pushed on the doors, only to find that they were blocked. "Great, now how do I get in?"
Then he remembered his new and improved toy, and he grinned. He lifted the crossbow, aimed for the thin line between the double doors, and fired.
BOOM!
Crane crashed through the doors and slide across the floor until he collided head first with a gold elephant statue.
His vision doubled, and Crane was barely able to focus enough to see Tujiu through the semi-darkness, stepping through the doors, blood still dripping from the tip of his hooked beak. He wiped it away with one wing and then scratched the wall above the second torch, showering it with sparks and setting it alight. With two torches lit the two avians could see each other clearly.
"I must say, you taste just like chicken." Tujiu snickered. "I'd love to finish off here, but I have to get back to Xian. I can't let him escape death again, you see."
"You're crazy." Was all Crane could say. Tujiu rolled his eyes, as if he had heard that phrase before.
"I'll take care of you later." Tujiu turned to leave.
Crane spied a second stature that had toppled to the floor, right by his leg. Fighting back against the pain of the bite wound dribbling blood down his thigh, Crane struck the statue with all his might. Fast as lightning the statue slid along the floor and crashed into the doors, blocking Tujiu's path.
There was a heavy pause, in which Crane quickly got back to his feet, his metal rimmed hat sliding off his head and falling to the floor. Then Tujiu slowly turned around, the fire from the torch dancing in his eyes. His golden talons clicked and gleamed.
"And I thought Shifu was a pain in the neck." He said simply. "Fine. Let's get this over with."
Tujiu advanced.
Crane winced from the wounds Tujiu had given him. He was bleeding from his wing and his leg. He knew there was a high possibility that he wasn't going to win this time.
Crane spotted his hat on the ground and reached down to pick it up just as Tujiu lunged. Crane fell back, the leg holding the hat rising instinctively in front of him.
Clang!
Crane's leg shuddered from the impact.
Tujiu stepped back, a little startled.
Crane stared at his hat. The razor sharp metal edge had several tiny notches from where the talons had struck it.
His eyes narrowed in determination. He stood up, hat in hand or more accurately foot, and faced ex-General Tujiu.
Tujiu lunged again, and Crane blocked the talons once again with his hat.
Thank you, Princess Haoxin De Nushi.
Frustrated, Tujiu attacked again and again, forcing Crane backwards as he continued to defend himself. The dueling birds passed a large pile of coins as they fought, and in his rage Tujiu slipped on the coins scattered on the ground, and he lost balance. Crane quickly retreated several steps as the vulture struggled to regain his balance, and then something clicked.
"It was you." Crane said. "You killed the medic. You were so determined to stay that you trapped the rest of us with you."
"Yes, I killed him." Tujiu snarled, and then attacked again.
Crane tripped over a small vase and fell backwards onto another pile of treasure. His hat caught Tujiu's talons just in time, and Crane knocked him backwards with a kick to the chest. He rolled off the pile and lunged at Tujiu, swinging his hat.
Tujiu didn't dodge fast enough, and when he backed away he looked down and saw a thin red line across his chest.
Crane paused, deciding to let Tujiu come at him and then counter his attack, hopefully ending the fight.
Sure enough, Tujiu roared in fury and attacked. Crane blocked his talons once again and then swept out the vulture's legs. Tujiu crashed to the ground, and Crane leapt forward and pinned his wings.
"It's over, Tujiu!" He yelled. "Xian's still alive and your plan failed! Give up before I have to kill you!"
Tujiu kicked Crane off, sending him crashing into the pile of coins. Crane threw a handful of coins into Tujiu's face as he lunged again, and quickly rolled out of harm's way. He considered it a good thing that there wasn't enough space for Tujiu to fly, since he was the only avian with two good wings.
Tujiu grabbed a sharp looking jeweled staff and flung it in Crane's direction. Crane deflected the projectile with his good wing as Tujiu lunged in, using the diversion to strike Crane with both wings and knock him to the ground. Before Crane could recover the hat that had been knocked from his grip, Tujiu leapt on top of him, pinning down his uninjured wing with one talon.
"I think now's the time to start begging." He snarled in Crane's face. "Everything that you've seen me do…" He latched the claws of his other foot onto the spot on Crane's chest were his heart was situated. "Everything that I've done…" He starting digging in. "Is nothing compared to what I'm about to do now."
Crane desperately tried to ignore the pain as he looked around for his hat. He saw it a little to his left, hopefully within reach. He reached out with his foot, but could just barely touch the edge.
"It's a shame really." Tujiu taunted, his claws digging deeper and deeper. "You're a talented lad. It's why Ember chose you. She needed someone who was smart enough to understand. You would have been welcome in my world."
"Do I look like I give a damn?" Crane retorted, glaring up at Tujiu in pure contempt. He reached out, and got a decent grip on his hat. Wasting no time, he swung his hat in an upwards arc.
"YAAARRRGGGHHH!"
Tujiu flew backwards with a scream as feathers went everywhere. Crane quickly got up once again, and wondered where he had hit Tujiu. Then Tujiu turned around slightly to look down at his rear end.
Crane nearly burst out laughing. Tujiu's tail feathers were gone.
To say that Tujiu wasn't amused was an understatement.
"THAT'S IT! NOW YOU DIE FOR-"
Clang!
Tujiu suddenly stopped speaking. His eyes glazed over and he swayed on the spot. Then his legs gave out from under him and he slumped against a statue, out cold.
The voice Crane heard next made his blood freeze.
"You never knew when to shut up."
The Yeti retrieved the large ruby he had flung at Tujiu's skull and returned it to its original place in the hands of a small monkey statue. Crane was frozen on the spot. He was dead. He was going to die. There was not a chance in hell he was going to survive this one. He was bleeding in several places and exhausted. He wouldn't last two seconds.
The Yeti turned back to Crane and pointed the biggest blade he had ever seen at Crane's throat.
"Do you mind? You're in my way."
Crane waited for the Yeti to run him through. But to his amazement, the Yeti merely knocked him aside with the flat of the blade, and he fell back onto the pile of coins.
"But I won't kill you this time. I saw what you did to Tujiu, and I've wanted to do that for a long time. I think you've earned your right to live. Besides, Ember seems to like you."
Crane struggled to speak as the Yeti strode past him and towards the doors to the tomb.
"W-Wait!"
"I've wasted enough time. Goodbye, Master Crane."
And then the Yeti was gone.
Crane stared at the open double doors. His heart was racing and he was in a lot of pain. But he couldn't call himself a kung fu master if he didn't try to stop whatever the Yeti was about to do.
He took one look at Tujiu's unconscious form and then raced for the doors. He quickly found that the Yeti was no long in the tomb, and turned his attention to the stairway that had appeared in the sarcophagus's place.
Tujiu had said that Ember was down there somewhere.
"Oh heck… I have to stop him…"
"Crane!"
"GAH!"
Crane leapt away from the suddenly materialized Master Shifu. Shifu looked like he had run into several of the fortress's traps. His robes were torn in several places and there was a small cut on his shoulder.
"Master Shifu! Where did you come from?!"
"Where's Xian?" Shifu demanded.
"He's in the throne room. The exit was blocked, we couldn't get him outside…"
"Have you seen Tujiu or Sao?"
"I don't know where Sao is, but Tujiu's out cold in the next room."
"Good work. Make sure you-" Shifu froze when he finally noticed Crane's injuries. "Make sure you get yourself to a medic as soon as possible."
"Okay." Crane said.
"I'm going down there. Make sure Tujiu doesn't pull another disappearing act."
"Master, you can't possibly fight that monster by yourself- and he's gone." Crane sighed as Shifu disappeared down the dark stairway. "Guess I'd better find some rope."
Crane gave one more worried look at the stairway before searching for something to tie Tujiu up with.
Of all the things Shifu could have found at the bottom of the stairway, he never expected a dead end. All that was there was a single square stone floor and a single unlit torch. It was if the Yeti had disappeared into thin air.
"Darn it all to heck." Shifu was about to punch the wall but then stopped as a sudden thought struck him. A thought concerning a secret passage and a panda cub with a cut knee.
Hadn't Su said something about a torch?
He looked up at the torch above him. Though it was dark, the power of inner piece had allowed him to see light in the deepest cave, and he could clearly see the handprint shaped marks in the dust covering the torch.
"Oh course." He muttered. "Just like with the first passage. Whoever built this place must have a thing for fire."
He reached up and pulled the torch, wincing as the movement brought a little extra sting to the cut on his shoulder.
There was a jolt and the floor shuddered, then Shifu was flabbergasted as he began to sink. The floor was descending like a falling leaf, going deeper and deeper by the second. Shifu almost convinced himself that the ancestors of Taotie had had a hand in the construction of this building.
Then the floor halted with another shudder.
Shifu found himself in a black abyss. Even through his inner peace aided eyesight he failed to see the walls. The floor was so charred it looked like he was staring at earth. Up above, in the center of the darkness, was a mechanism far larger that the mechanism in the top of the right hand tower. Through the gears and poles, he could see a bright red glow coming from a large spherical crystal.
"That must be the power source. It's almost exactly like the jade orb back at the palace." Shifu muttered. He wiped his forehead. It was incredibly hot down here. "Now where has that murderer got to?"
Across the wide space was a stone block with a square archway serving as the entrance. Gripping his staff tightly, Shifu crossed the burned floor and stepped inside. He wondered if going alone had been a good idea after all, but pushed the idea aside. One of his students was badly injured, and the rest were god knows where, probably helping Xian in any way they could. He thought of Tigress and Po. He hoped to god they were alright. He hoped the vision he had several days ago hadn't been an omen of death.
There was a short corridor leading to a set of vertical and horizontal bars. A gate had been triggered, blocking his way to the chamber right in front of him.
It was a small chamber, the size of a dungeon but brightly lit. The floors and wall were carved with beautiful fiery imagery. The Yeti was standing at a stone cube near the center of the floor, pulling something from its armor.
Shifu grabbed at the lowest horizontal bar and pulled. The gate was too heavy, even for him.
"Don't bother." The Yeti said without turning round. "Ember sealed it herself."
Shifu gave up, fuming. The spaces between the bars were too small to squeeze through, and one kick proved that the gate wouldn't break easily. To put it simply, there was nothing he could do.
Nothing he could do except talk.
"You know, a few days ago I found an old journal in the guest room I was sleeping in." He said slowly. "It mentioned a Dragon Empress. Care to elaborate?"
The Yeti had been about to place something in the stone cube, but then it paused.
"You know who she is. She is the ruler of this fortress."
"What does this fortress have to do with Shambhala?"
There was another pause, as if the Yeti was wondering if it should answer.
"The fortress is the meeting place for the Dragon Empress and her visitors. No outsiders can know Shambhala exists, and where it lies. The fortress enables Ember to meet with ambassadors and other guests without endangering her people."
Keep it talking, Shifu thought. Keep it talking until you can think of a plan.
"The journal also mentioned a general. The general of her private army. It's you, isn't it?"
"Once." The Yeti spoke. Its voice became soft. "But I failed her. I failed my mistress."
"What happened to her?"
The Yeti growled quietly.
"They happened."
"Who?"
"The order."
Shifu tightened his grip on the bars. More than a year ago, he had heard one Mu Zhanshi mention the order.
"What is the order?" Shifu demanded. "Tell me!"
The Yeti huffed.
"You'll find out soon enough. They won't stay in the shadows forever."
Shifu scowled. He didn't like the Yeti's answer one bit.
"You won't get away with this." Shifu retorted. "I will see to it that you are put to justice for your… crimes." He lost the color in his face when he saw, near the wall to the Yeti's left, a small black and white shape.
"Su!"
Su was lying curled up on the ground. Shifu tugged furiously at the bars, but they refused to lift.
"Let her go!"
The Yeti shrugged.
"Don't look at me. Ember was the one who brought her here. I guess she didn't want Sao and Tujiu getting their hands on her again."
"Excuse me?"
"I questioned Sao, but all he knew was that for some reason, the order wanted someone who had been touched by Ember. Of course the girl was the easiest target."
Shifu remembered Su's agonized condition. She seemed more peaceful now.
"What did Ember do to her?"
The Yeti didn't answer. Instead, it took a gleaming gold medallion and set it into the top of the stone cube.
The floor opened up, revealing a circular pit. A scraping sound came from the pit, growing louder and louder.
"The order killed her, didn't they? That's why we've seen her ghost all over the place."
"They may as well have killed her." The Yeti snarled. It gripped the edge of the stone cube and glared down into the pit.
Shifu frowned, but kept his eyes on Su.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that after they were done with her, she was left stabbed and burned over most of her body. As a goddess among mortals, she did not die, but the pain…" The Yeti growled again. "I couldn't imagine the pain she must have suffered if my life depended on it. She slipped into a coma several hours after that night, and since then she has rested beneath this fortress, waiting for her wounds to heal."
Su mumbled and fidgeted on the floor.
"I'm telling you all this for two reasons. The first reason, is so that you can understand why this has to be done. Ember will get her revenge, and many years ago I made a vow to serve her to my last breath."
Rising from the pit at that moment was a massive golden statue of a slender figure with the head of a dragon. Protruding from the back were dozens of massive needles topped with crimson dragon heads.
"The second reason, is so that when those murderers in the order finally show their faces, you can tell them, in person, that Ember never forgot. And she never forgave."
The needles twitched and pushed themselves out of the casket. It now felt like Shifu was surrounded by invisible flames searing his body.
"No." Shifu muttered. "Don't do this."
"And fail her again?" The Yeti asked. "I will never do that again."
The front of the casket split in two and opened up. The Yeti stepped backward, in awe of what was occurring.
"Arise, Ember." It spoke. "Nothing can stop you now."
The world around Shifu began to be consumed in a fiery red glow spewing from inside the casket, swallowing the surroundings and obscuring his vision. From the casket, a figure slowly stepped out, clothed completely in black, bearing the head of a dragon.
The last thing Shifu saw before the red consumed him was Ember's dragon-masked head turning in his direction.