Through the Looking Glass: Penance: Chapter 14
The next morning, Kublai Khan sat up in his bed, feeling much better from the acupuncture session he had taken with Mantis. The bull was now talking with Tai Lung and Po; the Furious Five stood outside to keep Wang Dun's attention long enough for Tai Lung to explain their plans to the emperor. Crane had gone off to bring Miles, Cream, Mei Ling, and a fourth person that the emperor had not seen to the palace, and he would be returning quite soon no doubt. In the meantime, the bull listened to the panda and the ex-criminal about their plans to bring down Tan Tao's empire.
"So you were hoping that he would make a move like that?" asked the bull.
"Yeah," said Po. "That way, we could find a way to prove that the two of them are the same."
"I mean, the bars I kicked at him had to hurt," added Tai Lung. "So I'm expecting that and a black eye from the rock..."
The emperor nodded. "In a way, it is good," he replied. "I know that now somebody is after me. That sloppy mistake will have its consequences the next time he tries it."
"Trust me, we hope to guarantee that tonight," replied the snow leopard, standing up and walking to the window. "I should probably get going to keep Wang Dun from suspecting anything."
The two friends nodded. "Go down to the royal garden," recommended the emperor quickly. "That should be the last place Wang Dun would check, and if he does you can hide rather well in there."
The leopard nodded in reply to this piece of news. He then darted out of the room, his form disappearing rather quickly. Nodding, the emperor looked to the Dragon Warrior, nodding.
"I apologize for my initial skepticism," said Kublai Khan slowly.
"Nah, it's cool," replied the Dragon Warrior as he stood up. "Now that we're on the same page, though, we should try to distract Wang Dun long enough for him not to notice anything while we look at the footage..."
"Indeed," replied the emperor as he stood up as well. "I still shower you with condolences over what happened to Shifu..."
Po nodded, thoughts of his old master making him somber. "Thanks," said the panda. "Tai Lung would've liked to hear that more than me, but still."
The emperor nodded, remembering that he had to say that to the leopard the next time they were ready to speak to each other.
Crane led Mei Ling, Miles, Cream, and Tai Xue along an area just below the imperial palace, all of them following as quickly as they could as Mei Ling carried Tai Xue in a sort of piggy back style.
"Crane, are you sure this is such a good idea?" she asked.
"Of course I'm sure!" said the bird, shaking his head. "I wouldn't have agreed to doing this otherwise. Besides, the emperor's word is second to none."
"Well, all right, dear..." said Tai Xue softly. "I will trust you..."
Crane nodded, inspecting where he saw a bunch of cherry trees quite a distance away from the architecture of the imperial. Looking up, he saw Wang Dun going arund the palace, the ambassador engaged in a conversation with Tigress. The two of them passed right by the royal gardens. For a brief second, the bird thought Tigress had noticed him and Mei Ling peeking over the wall to make sure they were gone. Paying it no mind, they continued until they could not be seen. Turning and nodding, the bird pointed at where the cherry trees were.
"Okay, you see those trees?" he asked. Upon seeing heads nod, he continued. "When I give you the signal, you're going to run as fast as we can to that point. It's the royal garden, a place that the emperor says Wang Dun would never check to see if we are there. Once I'm there, I'll try to steal the camera from Wang Dun's room and I'll run it back here."
"Okay," said Miles, looking into the thick array of cherry trees that were visible far enough away from the palace to be secluded.
Crane kept a vigilant watch from where he stood, eyeing the palace's walkway to make sure nobody was looking. he should not have worried, but he knew there were a few guards who probably would tell Wang Dun of what had happened. He was sure Tai Lung had snuck into the royal gardens all right, but he was afraid of what could happen if their plans were discovered by Wang Dun or Tan Tao. It did not really matter, he knew.
He kept watch long enough to see the guards leave their stances to change the guard. When he saw this, he gestured with his wing.
"Go!" he beckoned to his four companions.
Without asking any questions, the group suddenly took off, Miles not caring to go into superspeed since he knew that a loud boom would probably draw more attention to themselves than they needed. Mei Ling and Cream kept up with the surprisingly fast kitsune, the short distance being covered very quickly. They broke through the trees in a grand rustling of branches; Miles figured with the way that the trees were set up it would seem like the wind to anyone who had turned their heads right then as the four of them broke through the trees.
What they saw was a rather beautiful garden, blossoms and trees allowed to grow quietly in a strange kind of solitude. To the side, a set of prayer bells sat, mostly undisturbed as they displayed themselves proudly to the group of four. Lotus blossoms littered the ground right by a walkway that seemed to head deeper into the garden. To the side, a statue of a large bull was erected, gold shimmering in the sunlight as the statue seemed to look down on them positively. The line of sight was on the walkway, simple stones jutting out of the earth plaintively.
Standing on this walkway was Tai Lung, who had turned to face them just as they had broken through the trees. The predatory cat looked upon them, smiling as they nodded in his presence. The cat turned and stood up from the kneeling position he had taken up, eyes registering genuine surprise at seeing his friends come to the royal gardens, of all places.
"So it's true," said Mei Ling as she let Tai Xue down. "You really were pardoned by the emperor."
"It's true," replied Tai Lung, looking over in the direction of the imperial palace.
"Oh, you're safe!" cried Miles, jumping onto Tai Lung unexpectedly. "You're okay!"
Tai Lung was taken a little by surprise by the kitsune's actions, but he smiled warmly when his friend latched onto him. Slowly, Tai Lung hugged him briefly before the fox jumped out of his arms.
"Of course I am," he replied. "I've got more stamina than that..."
"It is good that you do," said Tai Xue softly as she walked towards Tai Lung. "Have you told your sister yet?"
Tai Lung glanced nervously to the side before shaking his head. "I'd rather you be the one to tell her," replied the snow leopard uncertainly.
The older cat nodded understandingly. "I understand," she said, smiling warmly.
Cream shrugged as she looked at the garden. "So I guess we wait here?"
Tai Lung shrugged. "I guess," he said, walking along the pathway. "But we're probably better off going deeper into the garden. That way those guards won't see us first thing if they happen to look in here."
Miles nodded at this, following Tai Lung closely. "Okay," he said.
And the five of them went deeper into the imperial garden, wondering what else the grand greenery could hold there.
It was pretty early in the day when Kublai Khan found Wang Dun walking into the throne room. The emperor smiled kindly upon the ambassador, walking forward while doing his best not to betray his newfound unease in being in his advisor's presence. Mantis and Viper were accompanying the bull then, the two of them keeping their demeanors calm as well. The ambassador's head was turned to them, and then the three of them suddenly noticed that the fur around Wang Dun's eye seemed a little different than it had the day previous.
Seeing this, the emperor looked at his subordinate with a great deal of concern on his face. "Wang Dun, may I ask why the fur around your eye is darker?" he asked.
"Oh! Well..." And from the initial hesitation, Viper, Mantis, and Kublai Khan all realized what was truly going on. "I... I fell out of my bed, milord. I had a rough night last night, as you can well imagine..."
The emperor nodded, realizing that something deep was happening. Keeping his calm demeanor, the emperor continued the conversation. "Oh, dear..." he said, making sure to sound genuinely concerned. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, milord," replied the ambassador. "It will get better on its own eventually..."
Viper decided to take this time to speak. "Did you notice anything... odd... happening last night?" asked the snake curiously.
"No, no I didn't," replied Wang Dun. The reply was incriminating enough, but the hastiness with which he said this caused Mantis to raise one of his eyebrows unnoticeably. "I fell out of my bed, but I did not see anything out of the ordinary otherwise."
"I see..." replied the emperor. "Wang Dun, I believe you have an appointment with the treasury today?"
"Ah, yes, of course milord!" said the tiger, bowing politely. "I shall attend to that immediately!"
With this, Wang Dun left in a hurry, the emperor shaking his head and looking to Mantis and Viper.
"It seems he did not notice that I was nearly killed last night," replied the emperor.
Viper nodded. "He was so hasty about his reply, too..." she added. "As if he wanted to believe himself..."
Mantis nodded. "If nothing else, Wang Dun is definitely in on something," he said. "And that something is not cool."
The emperor nodded in agreement. "It was a stretch to accuse Tan Tao of impersonating him, but I can see now that Wang Dun is up to something else." Nodding to the two kung fu fighters, he began walking forwards in the direction opposite where Wan Dun had come from. "I shall go to the garden now. With any luck, Tai Lung and his friends shall be waiting there. And if Crane was fast enough with retrieving that camera or whatever, then so much the better. I want you two to come with me."
Viper and Mantis both nodded, and then the three of them headed in the direction of the royal garden, knowing that whatever news awaited them from the camera could not be good.
Tai Lung had been walking around the garden with Miles and the small group when suddenly Crane came running to Miles, the video camera in his wings. Smiling brightly, Miles looked at the camera to find it had been turned off.
"I got it out of there," said Crane. "I didn't look at any of the videos in it; I figured it would be better if you saw them first."
The kitsune nodded, turning the camera on and looking as the screen flickered to life. To his great surprise, however, he noticed that the battery meter that was visible in a corner of the screen was full. Blinking in surprise, he pointed this out to Cream. The rabbit stood by the kitsune, eyes wide in surprise as she noticed this too.
"But... there's no place we could have put a power chord in this place, right?" asked Cream.
Upon hearing this, the other four people in the area showed various displays of shock.
"Power chord?" asked Tai Xue. "What might you be talking about?"
Miles blinked, suddenly realizing that they needed to be told what it was. "Oh, uh..." he began. "Well, you see, we usually charge these cameras with what's called a power chord. We plug them into a wall with wires in it that feeds electric energy to this. Then, it charges the battery so that it can be used more."
"So what's the catch?" asked Mei Ling.
"The catch?" replied Miles. "The catch is that these things don't recharge themselves by just sitting there..."
Tai Lung wrinkled his nose at this, realizing something. "Then maybe chi energy had something to do with this?" he asked.
The kitsune nodded at this conclusion. "It would add weight to the chi mage theory, at least," he said. "And there's only one reason why Tan Tao would want to use chi energy in Wang Dun's room..."
Heads nodded at this revelation. Before anybody could say anything else, however, Tai Lung's ears perked up as he heard the sound of footsteps on the stone pathway. He looked over, and within a few seconds the figure of the emperor walked in, Viper and Mantis by his side as he looked to the group. Upon seeing Tai Xue in the garden, however, the bull raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"I do not believe we have met before..." said the emperor, looking at the elderly snow leopard.
"We have not," replied the leopardess softly. "I am Tai Xue, a... recent friend of Cream's."
The emperor bowed his head politely in a greeting. "A pleasure to meet you, miss Tai Xue," he said. "I am Kublai Khan, emperor of China."
The ex-whore's eyes seemed to widen at this, wrinkles taking on a genuinely surprised expression. "You... Oh, milord!"
Tai Xue was instantly prostate in front of the emperor, her arms forward as everybody cast her confused looks. Chuckling good-naturedly, Kublai Khan bent down, took Tai Xue's hand, and lifted her from the ground.
"Oh, please, do not give me that nonsense here," he said, looking into her eyes softly. "This is a private place; any talk here should be strictly informal."
And with this, he turned to Miles, looking to the video camera in the kitsune's hand. When the fox felt the emperor's gaze fall on him, he jumped slightly.
"Oh!" he said, gesturing for everybody to come together to see what the tape had. "Crane just came with this thing! Let's see what it recorded, yes?"
The entire group came forward, Mantis jumping onto Cream's head and Viper slithering over Crane's shoulders as everybody else hunched over to look at the image on the flap on the side of the camera. Miles pressed a few buttons, and suddenly, it played through the end of Mei Ling's conversation with the emperor.
The film seemed to jump cut to Crane leaving the camera inside Wang Dun's quarters. The bird went around picking up the feathers, and as he did the emperor got a good view of what Wang Dun's room was like.
"No wonder he did not want anybody in there!" he said, noticing how messy the room looked. "His room is a mess!"
Nobody commented on this as they watched Crane leave. Another cut was made, and when the shot changed the light of the sun was replaced by a darkness, illuminated by the dull sapphire light of the moon. Wang Dun seemed to walk into view of the camera, the tiger rubbing his temples. He seemed to sit on his bed, the messy details of his room only then coming to focus.
The man then grabbed a potion off of the table and opened it, a strange yellow wisp rising from the potion's neck as it was opened. Wang Dun inhaled the wisp, closing his eyes as if pleased. Feeling invigorated, the ambassador stood up, stretching his limbs out.
What could be described after he did that was anybody's guess. Wang Dun then suddenly opened another potion, and then he took a sip of its contents. The tiger held his head in pain after setting the potion down on the table, and then suddenly the tiger's fur seemed to change color. Before anybody knew what had happened, Wang Dun had white fur instead of the orange fur everybody knew he had, and he seemed taller as well.
"Tan Tao..." muttered Tai Xue as she looked down at the tiger.
Wordlessly, the tiger then jumped out, and then another jump cut was made of when the tiger had returned. The cat quickly ran to the table, and quickly grabbed yet another potion from the table. Opening it quickly, he drank it and wiped his mouth. He set the potion back on the table just in time for him to grab his head from the headache. The tiger then shifted back to his Wang Dun form, the ambassador breathing in and out very heavily as he looked at his paws. Grabbing a mirror from the table, he looked on his own face to see the black eye. Swearing loudly so that the camera's sound could pick it up, he threw the mirror down. At this, a strange kind of energy seemed to emanate throughout the room, and even more so when the covers of his bed flung themselves up. Wang Dun then sat on his bed, thinking about something that by this point they all realized was a cover story.
Thinking they had seen enough, Miles saw it fit to stop the tape at that point. Looking to Kublai Khan, Mantis and Crane both nodded as the emperor reeled back in shock.
"We called it," said Mantis, shrugging.
Kublai Khan simply said nothing, wondering if what he had just seen was real. He remembered that Miles had proved that it wold record whatever it saw when it turned on, so there was no way he could have faked any of that footage. However, the jump cuts bothered him a little.
"If you don't mind my asking, why did it seem as if the footage jumped around in time?" asked the emperor.
Miles pointed to the grotesque addition on the camera. "This wasn't originally on it," he replied. "I added it at Mei Ling's house. But what it does is that it senses when someone is in a room, and it's programmed to record only when someone is in there."
"How does it know that?" asked Kublai Khan a little more insistently.
Miles shrugged. "There's a long and overly technical explanation for that," he said. "Llong story short, it has to do with body heat and being able to detect it."
The emperor nodded, still shocked over what he had just seen. "But then the question is, which of the brothers was killed all those years ago?"
Tai Xue rose an eyebrow at this. "Brothers?" she asked.
Kublai Khan nodded. "Wang Dun and Tan Tao were half-siblings," he replied. "One of them disappeared twelve years ago when I sent them on the first diplomatic mission to the outside world. Not only did it fail, but Tan Tao supposedly disappeared."
Looking down at the camera, the emperor continued. "Although, now that I see this, I am not sure which brother is the one that really disappeared all those years ago..."
"Then maybe you can trick him into telling you," said Tai Lung.
Kublai Khan raised an eyebrow at this. "What do you mean, trick him?" he asked. "If he catches on, then I am a dead man. He tried to kill me last night!"
"Then maybe you could bring him in here in the middle of the night," suggested Viper. "And then all of us plus Po, Tigress, and Monkey will hide in the bushes and ambush him when he gets out of control. That way, we could have him arrested when he least expects it."
"And that's two birds with one stone," said Miles. "If you'll pardon the expression," he added to Crane quickly.
The emperor nodded as he thought about this, a coy smile spreading across his lips as he thought of this.
"That definitely sounds like a plan," he said. "Tai Lung, stay here with your friends and find a good place to hide. Crane, Mantis, Viper, come with me. We are going to collect the other three warriors and lay the pieces in place for tonight."
The snow leopard nodded, and as the bull turned to leave Tai Lung nodded to his friends. Flitting about, they all hid in various places in the bushes, Tai Lung, Miles, and Cream all nestling comfortably into the small space provided by a cherry tree as they saw Mei Ling and Tai Xue hide on the opposite side of the pathway.