Through the Looking Glass: Penance: Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Tai Lung had resented having ropes around his wrists again, but he knew it was something that had to be done. Looking at the Dragon Warrior as they moved along in the mist, he nodded.
"Well, we're getting awfully close to Beijing," said Po as the Furious Five flanked around them. "Are you sure you'll be fine like this?"
"It'll have to be done," said Tai Lung, nodding. "I wonder when the emperor is going to try to execute me..."
"We'll see," said Tigress as she saw bits of the Grand Gate of Beijing in front of her in the mist. "Let's move."
"Operation Tao's Doom, entering Phase 2!" chimed Mantis playfully as he jumped onto Crane's head. "Move out!"
And so the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior came to the gates of Beijing. The guards working in the gate looked down at the party of six with perplexed expressions on their eyes.
As they neared the gates, a rather tall rhinoceros came up to the group, eyeing everyone. "What business do you have, Dragon Warrior?" asked the guard at length.
"Sir," replied Po, bowing respectfully. "We have captured Tai Lung and request an audience with Emperor Kublai Khan. Immediately."
The rhinoceros stood proud, looking down at the six kung fu masters. "Very well," he said, turning around. "Messenger! Tell the palace that the Dragon Warrior is here with China's most wanted man!"
There was a faint 'yes, sir' from somewhere high up on the tall gate. The doors then opened very slowly. Po turned to the rest of the Furious Five, all of them winking at each other as they saw the gates open.
"Phase 2 is underway," whispered Mantis, which earned a chuckle from Crane.
Keeping in character, Tai Lung growled slightly at this, the six of them continuing on as Tai Lung's glare intensified.
When Po and the Furious Five had entered the emperor's throne room with Tai Lung in tow, the Dragon Warrior was quick to notice that Wang Dun was looking at Tai Lung deliriously. Ignoring this and making a mental note to make sure Wang Dun did not supervise Tai Lung's days in his cell, he turned his attention to the emperor and bowed respectfully.
"Welcome, Dragon Warrior," said the bull calmly. "I see you have captured Tai Lung again."
"Yes, sir," replied Po. "His... friend had freed him when we sent Crane and Mantis to inform you. Our apologies for this."
"It is no problem at all," replied the emperor, standing up and looking at Tai Lung.
"But, milord, Tai Lung slashed me in the face!" pointed out Wang Dun fretfully. "That does not worry you?"
"If you had died, that would have worried me much more," replied the ruler of China. "As it is, you are in no truly serious condition and are still able to stand by my side. Therefore, I have very little cause to worry."
The male tiger was silent at this. Bowing politely, he kept his mouth shut, keeping his gaze fixed on Tai Lung.
"Yeah," said Mantis, shrugging. "So, milord, what do you think will happen now that all this has gone by?"
The bull put his hands behind his back as he stood, grand robe flowing onto the floor as he walked away from the throne. "An execution is surely in order," replied the emperor. "I will not need a trial to know that he has commited many grave sins over the course of his life."
"So if you don't mind us asking, milord, when will this happen?" asked Po, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice.
"Four days," said the ruler. "An exact period of ninety-six hours that begins when he is taken to his cell."
Everybody that was not the emperor or Wang Dun were very relieved by this. They had enough time to prove that something infinitely more dangerous was in store for the emperor than Tai Lung.
However, Wang Dun made his distress apparent.
"Four days, milord?" he asked loudly. "But this could be--!"
"Silence!" cried the emperor, his voice very intimidating and quite irritated. "I have taken your personal raving against Tai Lung for long enough! If you demand Tai Lung's death faster than what I deem correct, I will ask you to leave the court for the rest of the day!"
With this firm declaration, Wang Dun bowed his head in shame. The seven kung fu warriors had to fight the urge to giggle at how helpless the tiger looked in this state, but the message was still clear.
"I see..." said the Dragon Warrior. "I shall ask that you have one of us guard him in his final days. He did master all one-thousand scrolls, and he did escape from Chor Gom twice..."
"Indeed," said the emperor, nodding at this as Tigress noticed Wang Dun getting more and more agitated by the second. "It sounds like a very wise course of action. Very well, then. The six of you shall alternate guarding his cell, with a pair of guards to assist you should you run into any problems."
"Thank you," said the Dragon Warrior before Wang Dun could say anything to stop this. "I would also like to talk with you in private with the Furious Five after this meeting."
The emperor nodded at this. "Very well, then," replied Kublai Khan stoically. "I will stay behind with you five after this meeting is over."
The six warriors nodded as Tai Lung looked down at the ground. The emperor then turned to the guards, nodding to the rhinos that stood there. "Guards," said Kublai Khan. "Take Tai Lung down to the dungeons. Master Monkey, I shall ask you to accompany them down."
"Yes, milord," replied the simian as the rhinos came forward and grabbed Tai Lung's bound arms. Slowly, the four left the room, leaving Po, Tigress, Viper, Crane, and Mantis all looking at the emperor. Slowly, the ruler of China turned to Wang Dun, who had regained his composure.
"And you should tend to meeting with the messenger from Hunan," he said commandingly. "Tell him I apologize for not being present to hear him speak."
Wang Dun nodded and quickly filed out of the room. Turning to Po and the Furious Five, the emperor nodded.
"So what would the purpose of such a private meeting be?" asked the emperor.
Po looked around, noticing that the guards had left with Tai Lung. Looking back at Kublai Khan, he dropped his business-like demeanor. "I don't think Tai Lung is the greatest threat to China's safety right now," he said, not bothering to beat around the bush. "Actually, if his recent conduct says anything, I'd say he's not trying to harm China right now.
At this, the emperor raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?" asked the bull.
"It was something we noticed while we were here," said Mantis quickly. "Tell us, milord; does the name 'Tan Tao' sound familiar at all?"
The expression on Kublai Khan's face could only be described as being highly perturbed. Despite this, he kept his posture, and looked down at the group. "Tan Tao, you say?" asked the bull. "He was Wang Dun's half-brother."
Eyebrows raised at this, but before they could voice any of their concerns the emperor continued talking. "He disappeared eleven years ago, however," he said stoically. "It was very strange. I had sent the both of them on a diplomatic mission to the outside world, and then Tan Tao simply disappeared off the face of the earth. The mission was not successful, but I know Wang Dun came back all right." The bull shook his head. "He said that Tan Tao had drowned in the ocean after he had been thrown overboard... It was a tragic night for all of us when we found out."
All five kung fu warriors gave each other confused glances.
"That's really odd," said Crane quickly. "Because I know that Tai Lung had an encounter with someone by that name earlier. He was a tiger with white fur, apparently."
At his, the emperor gave a rare look of shock. "Were you working with him behind my back?" asked the emperor quickly.
The question itself caught everybody off guard. Crane and Mantis were both surprised at this, but they knew they could not deny the truth.
"Yes, but hear us out milord," replied Tigress quickly. "Do not brand us traitors yet."
The bull exhaled loudly through his nose, clearly not pleased with what had just been admitted. However, he brought his hands forward into a praying gesture.
"Speak," he said. "If I do not like what I hear, I will send you down to the cells with that monster!"
Mantis winced at this, pincers rising as he heard the venom in Kublai Khan's voice. Tigress, however, was not so shocked, so she continued.
"When we had captured Tai Lung, I had noticed something moving in the fog," she said. "It was headed straight for Beijing; I also sent Crane and Mantis forward with the hopes that they could investigate what it was about."
"And we ran into Tai Lung and his fox friend on our way here," continued Crane. "Tai Lung had seen it too. You know Cream? That rabbit girl you met at the Jade Palace a week ago?"
The emperor's eyes seemed to soften quickly. "I do," he said. "What does this have to do with your story?"
"You'll see in a second," replied Mantis. "Anyways, we decided to investigate together. So I hid Tai Lung and Miles-- that's the fox's name-- in a friend's house while we were attending to everything else. And when we were visiting you, they were going through the city in search of Cream. And sure enough, they found her in the slums of Beijing."
The bull raised an eyebrow at this revelation, genuinely surprised. "I see..." he said. "What had happened to her?"
"She had been forced into prostitution!" exclaimed Crane. "And the name of the crime lord who was forcing her to sell herself was named Tan Tao!"
In a rare display of shock, the emperor's crimson eyes fixed themselves on the avian's figure, his normally proud figure bending over sharply. "What?" he asked.
"That's not all," continued Crane. "Tai Lung had rescued Cream from her fate with Miles' help that night. That night, Tai Lung had scratched Tan Tao in the face defending Cream and Miles from his wrath. After that, he took off."
Mantis looked to where Wang Dun had walked out of the room. "Those same cuts appeared in distorted form on Wang Dun's face the next morning," he said. "And that was when he was screaming for Tai Lung's bloody death."
The bull was quite shocked to hear this. "Are you saying that not only is Tan Tao alive, but he is also pretending to be Wang Dun?"
"Yes," replied Mantis. "And yes, I know they were two different tigers. Tai Lung said something about that too when this idea was first brought up. But even if he's not impersonating your advisor, the fact is he's still alive, and I think he's after your throne. Not only that, but he was the one who helped free Tai Lung from Chor Gom. He was trying to get Tai Lung to spread anarchy through China."
"And then he met Miles," added Crane. "That is the only reason Tai Lung has not joined him yet. It's also the reason he did not lash out at us just now."
"Please, milord," said Mantis, almost pleadingly. "You have to trust us. We're still working with him. But we've got a plan to take down Tan Tao's criminal empire, and Tai Lung is trying to help us with this as well. We only ask your undying trust for this, and that you tell nobody that we're doing this."
The emperor stood silently at this revelation, mulling the thoughts over with a shocked expression. Finally, he blinked and stood again, assuming his strict posture again as he looked down.
"You say this, Miles, and Cream were with you," he said. "Where are they now?"
"They're with my friend, milord," replied Crane. "If you want to, I can bring you to them tomorrow."
"Very well, then," said Kublai Khan with a nod. "I shall trust you for now. But if I see something odd tomorrow, then I am throwing you in the dungeon next to Tai Lung!"
"Yes, milord," replied everybody else with respectful bows.
"Thank you for this chance, milord," said Po. "I promise you will not regret this."
"I hope so too," replied the emperor.
And with this, the meeting officially ended, Po and the four members of the Five nodding as the emperor left the room, his gait quite solemn.
"Phase 2 complete," said Mantis with a grin on his face. "Phase 3 will begin shortly."
"With slight modifications," added Po, keeping with Mantis' sort of running joke.
Miles sat at a table Mei Ling had prepared, working with a small device as a candle burned by his side. He was hard at work, so Cream had seen it best not to disturb the kitsune as he rewired the camera into a small device he had somehow created. Thus, Cream sat with Mei Ling and Tai Xue at the kitchen.
"So, when does he say we'll be able to test it out?" asked the oldest woman in the bunch.
"Morning," he says. "He's thinking of surprising Crane with it when he comes over."
Mei Ling giggled at this prospect. "I can imagine the shock on his face when he sees himself talking."
"We'll see," said Cream, shrugging. "I still can't believe Mantis managed to get us in here in the dead of night without any of Tan Tao's partners noticing..."
"Neither can I," replied Mei Ling wih a nod. "All the better for us, I suppose."
"Yeah," said Cream. "Now let's hope everything goes well on Po's and Tai Lung's side of things..."
With this, they continued to watch Miles hunched over the table, doing what he claimed he was best at.