She was gone.
So was her general.
The golden container was now cold and empty.
Shifu blinked several times, rooted to the spot. The air was cool, and decades old dust itched the back of his throat. After his frantic run through the fortress, his bad leg was throbbing was than ever.
It felt as if the burning crimson light had paralyzed him. All he could do was stand there as he comprehended the implications of what he had just witnessed.
He only returned to his senses when he heard a soft moan.
"Su."
Shifu reached for the bars again, but then he realized that they too were gone. A puddle of molten metal lay at his feet.
He very carefully stepped over the puddle and rushed to Su's side. The girl was half-conscious, and her face looked like it was been recently rubbed clean. She looked unharmed.
"Su. Su!" Shifu gently shook her shoulders.
"Mmmm…" Su's dark blue eyes fluttered open and gazed right into Shifu's lighter blue eyes. "Shifu? What the heck is going on?"
He couldn't stop himself. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, so relieved that she was okay that for the moment he threw discipline completely out the window.
"It's good to see you too." Su replied softly.
Shifu let go, and looked Su over.
"Are you alright? Did she hurt you?" He asked.
"Who, Ember? I don't know."
Shifu helped Su to her feet. She was unsteady, and her eyes were squinting even though they were in a darkened room.
"How's your head?" Shifu asked, remembering her condition earlier in the evening. "Is it still hurting?"
"Nuh-uh." Su replied, holding onto Shifu's arm with both paws to stay balanced. "Actually, it feels really light since Ember broke that thing in it."
"What thing? What did she break?"
"I'm not sure." Su poked the side of her head and frowned. She poked her head again.
"Okay..." Shifu decided at that moment to find and consult an expert the second they returned to the Valley of Peace. "Come on, I'm getting you out of here."
"Okay. Oh! You're hurt."
Su reached out and Shifu felt her small fingers tenderly touch his shoulder.
"Don't worry about it. I've suffered far worse."
Shifu walked Su over to the exit. It was eerily quiet now. The mechanisms above had been silenced.
"Shifu, where are we?"
"I believe we're in the heart of the fortress."
"Oh."
Su suddenly stopped in her tracks. Shifu was about to ask what was wrong when he saw her expression. She seemed to be staring at nothing in particular, and her eyes had taken on an unusually bright shine. Then she blinked and looked at Shifu.
"Have you seen Ember since she got out?" Su asked.
"No. Why?"
"Well, if you want Mr. Tujiu alive, then you'd better get him before she does. I'm just saying."
Crane's head had started throbbing a little while after Shifu disappeared down the dark stairway.
The pain had come out of nowhere, and when it did, it was so intense he had been literally blinded. Fortunately the worst pain had lasted only a few seconds, and now it was little more than a dull ache at the top of his skull.
On the other hand, in his initial agony he had forgotten about Tujiu.
Crane was still in the tomb when he heard Tujiu shouting.
"No! No! Get away!"
It was coming from the treasure room.
"Crap." Crane cursed himself for not taking care of Tujiu when he had the chance and rushed for the doors. A fierce heat emanated from the doors, and only got stronger when he reached them and forced them open.
He saw a red flash in the distance, and then it was gone. It looked like the light had gone through the opposite passage.
Tujiu was gone.
"Oh no. No way you're escaping again!"
Crane crossed the treasure room, stopping only for a moment when he saw the small opening in the wall that Mantis had mentioned. It was safe to say that there was no way Tujiu could fit in there.
Crane was startled when a green tree viper suddenly emerged from the opening.
"Crane!" Viper was just as surprised to see him. "Where's Tujiu? Oh my god, your leg!"
"It's just a flesh wound. Tujiu's gone."
"You call that a flesh wo- how could you lose him?!" Viper hissed.
"He broke free! We starting fighting, then the Yeti turned up and knocked him out-"
"It's here?!"
"It went down that stairway, and Shifu went after it! Then I heard Tujiu shouting, and when I came back he was gone!" Crane thought he could have explained it better. "Did you turn the traps off?"
"Yes, they're off. And I found Sao. He's just through that doorway, and he's paralyzed so he's not going anywhere. Come on, we've got to find Tujiu! He's probably going after Xian again!"
"He'll have gone through there!" Crane gestured towards the passage. "Let's go!"
They furiously made their way through the passage. The air was gradually getting warmer, and by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs it was so hot that if they weren't reptiles or birds respectively they would have been sweating.
Then they heard Tujiu shouting again.
"Get away from me, you witch! Why didn't you die?!"
"Who the heck is he talking to?" Viper wondered.
"I don't know, but it doesn't sound good." Crane felt uneasy. "We'd better get up there."
"God, it's hot." Viper muttered.
They rushed up the stairs, Crane falling back a little due to his injuries. Then they were back in the library.
Something was wrong. The world around them had taken on a blood red tint and scrolls and books were strewn all over the place. They could hear the dull roar of a large fire.
They heard Tujiu scream again. They rushed to the rail and stared down at the floors below. Viper wrapped her tail around the rail and swung her head down so she could have a clear view of the next floor down.
"Get back! GET BACK!" Tujiu yelled.
"Crane, look at this!" Viper said.
Crane lowered himself to the floor and ducked down to see what Viper could see.
Tujiu was rapidly backing away towards the spiral stairway, throwing scrolls and other small objects at a massive fire that was creeping towards him. Crane was about to start wondering if Tujiu had started the fire himself, when he realized that something was very off about the flames. The tongues of the flames snaked and reared in the air, like flaming tendrils. They reached out towards Tujiu as he retreated, then leaned back like snakes. Taunting him. Savoring his fear.
"Oh no." Crane muttered. "Viper, get out of here!"
"Excuse me?" Viper was indignant.
"I want you to get out of here right now before you get hurt!"
"I'm not leaving you here alone with that psycho!" Viper snapped. "Come on, we can intercept him at the bottom floor."
"Viper-"
"He's reached the stairs! We have to go now!"
Viper grabbed Crane's leg and tossed him over the side.
"YAAAHHH!"
Crane fell for one second before he felt Viper grab his leg again and spin him round, stopping his momentum right before he hit the ground and allowing him to land on his feet.
Viper, the second fastest member of the Furious Five, landed on the ground next to him in coils.
"Never! Do that again!" Crane gasped.
"Not while you're hurt, I won't." Viper replied.
Then Tujiu reached the bottom of the stairway, pursued by the living flames. The entire second floor was completely consumed in an inferno.
Crane and Viper quickly moved to block his path to the corridor.
"You're not going anywhere, Tujiu!" Viper yelled. "Tell us where Su is!"
Tujiu looked panicked. He glanced at the fire that was steadily creeping down the stairs, and then he took off. He seemed to be having trouble with his right wing, and they saw that most of his feathers had been burned, which explained why he took the stairs. He headed for the open entrance to the second library.
"Oh no you don't!" Viper slithered in pursuit.
"Viper no!" Crane followed her, terrified.
The flames weren't far behind. Crane sensed something in the flames, something he had sensed before, only it felt less like a ghost and more like flesh and blood.
Tujiu came to a halt in the open circular space in the middle of the library, apparently having realize he had run into a dead end. He turned to face Viper and Crane, eyes wide with fear.
"It's over!" Viper yelled.
"No it's not!" Tujiu spoke rapidly. "It will never be over. Now it's too late."
"We'll see about that!" Viper approached menacingly. Crane held out his wing to stop her.
"Viper wait…"
A solid blast of heat sent them both falling backwards to the floor. Searing hot wind tore at Crane's feathers and Viper's flower decorations went flying. The air was blood red, and everything around them was consumed in fire.
"Nothing can stop her now." Tujiu whispered.
"Crane?!" Viper cried. Crane tried to get up and go to her, but found that he couldn't. Tujiu stood in the middle of the room, staring at something behind the pair.
Crane's eyes widened as a slender figure clothed in a tight black suit slowly stepped between him and Viper, trailing little flames behind her. The face of her red and black dragon helmet was focused solely on the panicked vulture she was approaching.
"No! Get away from me!" Tujiu grabbed a small frog sculpture and threw it at her. It burned in midair and turned into ash.
The flaming tendrils reared, and then closed in on him. They curled around him like coils as he screamed, over and over until he was obscured from view. Now a fiery ball hovered where he had been standing, held in place by thick stands of fire.
A tiny chuckle of satisfaction left Ember as the ball shrank with Tujiu inside, and then exploded. Fire and ash flew in all directions, and then dissipated, her dissipating along with it.
The air became cool. The blood red tint returned to normal. The fire faded away as if it had never existed.
All that was left was a set of charred footprints leading from the exit to the middle of the room, and silence.
"Oh my god!" Viper gasped. "Holy crap! What the fricking hell just happened?! God damn it!"
Once he was sure that the entity was definitely gone, Crane slowly got up and made his way over to Viper. He put a shaking wing on the back of her neck.
"Viper…" He spoke. "Are you okay?"
"Do I bloody look okay?!" Viper retorted. She looked like she had just had the scariest experience of her life.
"Yeah, you do."
His simple reply seemed to calm Viper, and she slowly slithered towards the middle of the room. There was a massive scorch mark of the spot Tujiu had once stood.
"Crane!"
Crane spun around.
Master Shifu was striding into the room. He looked slightly disheveled.
"Viper! What happened? I heard someone screaming!" He said.
"That was Tujiu." Crane said. Viper looked too shaken to reply herself. "He's gone. Just… gone."
"What do you mean gone?" Shifu demanded. He looked ready to say more, when Viper let out a small cry.
"Sister!" She rushed at the small panda cub leaning against the door frame and wrapped her coils around her in tight hug. "Oh, sweetie! I was so worried about you!"
Crane started breathing a little easier. Shifu had found Su after all, safe and sound.
"Crane!" Shifu brought the avian's attention back with a snap of his fingers. "What. Happened. To. Tujiu?"
"He's dead." Crane spoke. "She did it."
"Who?" Shifu glanced momentarily at Viper.
"Ember."
Finally, after all those years of waiting and watching over her, she was free. All those sacrifices, all the blood his hands, hadn't been for nothing.
The Yeti made his way up to the stairway to the throne room. There was nothing left for him to do here. He had completed his task and released Ember from her casket. He wondered what she was doing at the moment.
He entered the throne room and looked around to make sure he was alone. He saw the male tiger and the old goose next to one of the statues. The tiger looked half dead, and was covered in blood. Tujiu's work no doubt.
The Yeti ignored them both and began making his way to the exit. He suddenly sensed a threat. A familiar shape emerged from the doorway.
The panda. For some reason he was wearing a wok for a hat. The Yeti was reaching for his blade when the panda lifted a crossbow. He aimed straight for the Yeti's chest.
"This is for getting scratches on my Tigress." The panda said. He fired.
At first, the Yeti made no move to avoid the projectile. But then his keen eyes took in the strange looking construction the panda had tied to the front of the crossbow. It was a thin wooden pole that held up a small frame in front of the arrowhead. Then the Yeti noticed the arrow flying at him. The arrowhead was encased in a small cloth bag consumed in fire.
Oh sh-
The Yeti dodged too late, and the arrow struck him in the shoulder and exploded. Armor pieces flew everywhere. The Yeti roared in pain and held a hand up to his shoulder. He didn't feel any blood, not yet, but he didn't dare looked at the injury.
He turned to glare furiously at the panda, and saw that the panda was about to fire again.
With a pained snarl the Yeti lashed out with his blade, but the pain meant his aim was off and the panda was only struck with the flat of the blade. The panda was knocked aside, but he quickly rolled back into standing position.
"Not so tough now, are ya?" He yelled.
The Yeti didn't reply. He had to get out of here before the panda's friends showed up.
He snarled defiantly at the panda once and then bolted for the exit. The traps must have been disabled, because he had no trouble making his way down the stairs and into the entrance hall. He spotted the praying mantis leaping at him from the corner of his eye and quickly sent the bug flying with a backhand.
Suddenly he was struck by a second arrow, a normal one. With his tough hide damaged and weakened it pierced his already wounded flesh and sank all the way to the feathers. The Yeti roared again, and this time he felt the blood. He looked around for his assailant but saw no-one.
Snarling again, he raced through the entrance doors, which had been blown apart. He rushed across the courtyard, passing the sea of paralyzed soldiers, and leapt through the hole in the outer wall.
Hand pressed to his ruined shoulder, the Yeti made his escape.