#the tags arent working on the ao3 promo for some reason bluh

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FANFIC: Bùkěsīyì - Part 11

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Summary: In which the past catches up.

A/N: School’s finally out, meaning that I have time to write.

Alright, we’re going to detour a bit before the training montage ‘finishes’. I needed to address a plot point I brought up in the first act.

As of what I’m planning right now, Parts 10 - 13 are events that are happening really close to each other. After this, a lot of the events (save for some) are going to be a departure from the source material and while it’s a little overwhelming to think about, I hope it’ll be as interesting for you as it is for me!

Mei looked out the window and smoothed her fur out with one hand. The other hand was busy clutching at a now-crumpled note written in Shen’s hand– still impeccably tidy looking despite the smudges she made from holding it for so long.

I’m going to the Bridge.

The first wave of evacuations rumbled in slowly through the countryside. Those who didn’t turn tail and run after the Valley-wide reading were scrambling their belongings and their family together. The Masters, along with some volunteers, ushered the rest onto a clear path– one that was headed to Jiayin, sister city to the Valley and home to Li Dai Academy.

Just leave without me.

It was hard to avoid from the hustle and bustle of panicking people– they were just everywhere. It was even worse when some stopped to stare, like she brought this upon them just by saying it. The goat yanked the curtain close as a kit locked eyes with her.

She had enough of wallowing in self-pity to last her a lifetime, now was the time for another attempt.

Mei slammed the door open, looking out towards the untended fields and to the wilting garden beside her– a silent reminder that she needed to get two people back. With a sigh on her lips, she walked towards the direction of the crowds, ignoring the people and their gazes.

All of them might as well have been dark shapes at the edges of her vision.

The first to notice her was Master Viper, who had a parasol in tail and was brandishing it like a pointing stick. “Valley Soothsayer? What are you doing here?”

“I live here.”

The serpent looked around the farmlands in quiet incredulity. Before she could get a word in Mei interjected coolly, “Yes, I know– ‘what’s a soothsayer doing living out in the outskirts of the Valley?’– I’ve heard it all before, but that’s not why I’m out here.”

She looked around the passing crowd urgently.

“Where’s Oogway? Is he helping people evacuate? I really need to talk to him.”

“He’s training–”

“Then bring him here!”

“…Up at the Wu Dan mountains.”

“Of course he is!” The goat’s usual tone of nonchalance was waning, giving in to tiredness. “…Of course he is.”

Viper twirled the parasol in uncertainty. “Are you alright?”

While Mei was nodding, the way her shoulders sagged suggested otherwise. “Sorry– it’s just–” she clutched the side of her head. “Someone… important– he– Shen, he– he ran away.”

“What?”

“To the Thousand Step Bridge.”

“That’s where the army was last spotted!”

The goat nodded hurriedly. “I’m aware, just please– I– I need help.”

“We have one of our students going there right now– their paths could meet,” the master said, an attempt to assuage the other’s doubt.

Mei stayed silent for a moment, instead opting to clasp her hands together out of uncertainty.

“Pardon my apprehension, but it’s been a long…” Mei trailed off. “Well, it’s a difficult time.”

The serpent frowned as the coils that held her parasol in place tightened its grip. She tilted her head, clearly confused by the other’s reaction. The Valley Soothsayer was known for many things, but tepiditywas not one of them.

A voice rang out from above. “Viper!”

The named master looked up for a moment to see the silhouette of Crane soaring above everyone. “Well, I suppose I should get going now.” She began to turn back towards the rest of the villagers. “Valley Soothsayer, please don’t worry– if Shifu doesn’t find him, then he’ll be caught up in the flow of evacuation on the way there and go to a safe town.”

And with that, Viper slithered off into the crowds with parasol in coil, leaving Mei alone with her thoughts.

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Another day, another attempt– or rather, anxiously waiting for him to come back. The rural areas was slowly getting cleared out in waves, and she can only wait for so long until the masters caught wind of it, or something worse–

As Mei trudged back to her home, the houses were eerily quiet. The sun had begun to set, casting long shadows over crops now waterlogged from lack of maintenance. During this time, there should be farmers ending their daily chores. There should be people making their way from the main hub of town, tired from the sun beating down on them as they sold their wares.

She looked over to her home, slowly coming into view. At this point, Oogway would tend to the small garden in front. Shen would be complaining about the lack of food so loudly, she’d hear it from there.

A loud clatter rang out from nearby. Mei’s fur bristled. The rabbit family that lived there… they just left yesterday.

Mei snuck over to the house, peering into the window with a morbid curiosity.

A dark shape loomed in the far end of the house, loomed in shadows. It was making a mess of the kitchen, throwing the bowls every which way and snapping up whatever food he could find in its jaws. Sharp teeth glinted in the fading light, as did its claws.

Mei stepped back abruptly, causing her to trip over the small garden plot in front of the house. In the moment of impact, there was silence. She brought herself up quickly to run off to a safe place.

She stopped short of the main hub of the town before a dark shape darted forward to block her path.

The wolf in the crowds.

“It’s you,” he rasped out.

Mei stepped back, looking towards the nearby houses in the hopes that there was someone there. Someone that, at the very least could be an eyewitness and assuade him.

The wolf’s hunched form clearly expressed disappointment, as well as hunger considering their emancipated state. Wide eyes flashed with hunger, then to recognition, and finally furrowed down to anger. “If you know what’s best for you, keep quiet,” he murmured.

Mei stood her ground, but everything was telling her to leave and get far, far away. This wasn’t happening– this shouldn’t be happening–

His smile became sharp and jagged, emphasized by the snap of his jaws a moment later. “Or would you like to suffer the same fate as your traitorous parents?”

Her fur bristled. Her hands trembled. The sound echoed in her ears.

Snap.

This was all so achingly familiar. Her fortune, this outcome.

She remembered something– something she had pushed back for all these years. Loud, angry caws akin to the screeching of metal. Comforting words. Hoofed hands on her cheek before they were torn away. The howling and snapping.

Amidst all that, a feathered hand grabbed her by the shoulder to snap her out of it. There was a voice screaming at her to hurry up and run far, far away from the tower, past the courtyard, far beyond the city she knew all her life.

Snap.

“W– why are you doing this?” Mei’s voice did not sound like her own. Her mind was reeling, as if this entire thing was a vision. But it was the exact opposite.

The past was crashing down on her this time, and she was ill-equipped for it.

“For the glory of Gongmen.”

Snap.

Her stomach lurched at those words. She had no one to help her now– not Shen, not her parents, not anyone. She could practically hear the sounds of drums over and over again, beating hard against her ears and making it difficult to think.

She had nothing but her words now. Same as it had always been.

“No, that’s what the lord and lady told you to do.” Mei fumbled with her sleeves, her shaking quelled somewhat. Her words were terse, bravado wavering into uncertainty.

No answers came. A growl rumbled in the other’s throat. His steps faltered for a moment as he swayed.

Exhaustion , Mei managed to extrapolate. “…Has the situation gotten so bad back there that this is justified? Why–”

Before she could even react, she was suddenly lifted up by the collar and was slammed against the nearest wall. Letting out a wheeze out of pain and sudden disorientation, she stared at the wolf wide-eyed.

A caw rang in the distance.

“I know what you did all those years ago.” The wolf’s ears pinned down in anger. “Your little ‘fortune’ sent them into madness–!”

“Can’t send anyone anywhere if they were already there in the first place,” she snapped back. “They’ve always been like that– stuck in the past, paranoid–”

He snarled. “Don’t you dare speak of–”

Mei struggled to free herself from his grasp, eyeing at his form and how rail-thin he was. “Look at yourself– they claim to care for their subjects, yet leave all of you like this?!”

The wolf’s brows furrowed, almost as if considering her words as his grip loosened.

Mei swung her head back before headbutting him in the snout. As the wolf reeled back with a whine, she ran past him and to the main hub of the town. It just as quiet and empty as the rural area. Looking up to the peak where the Jade Palace resided, she sprinted her way past the empty houses and stalls towards the steps.

The masters, or at the very least servants should be tending to it now–

The world was shifting around her at a dizzying pace, but she can’t stop– not now .

She barely managed to clamber up the first three steps before she felt clawed hands grab her leg. As she lost her footing, she fell straight onto the stairs. Mei let out a yell, clutching her side while trying to pull away from his grip.

“You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that!”

The goat let out a noise between a bleat and a yell as she tried to kick him off with her free leg, eyes shut tight in both pain and fear that gripped her. Each hit was blocked off by his armor-clad free arm. The next kick was off-beat, taking a moment too long to reel back.

He took the opportunity to pull a warhammer from the strap on his back. Long and thin, the head glinted in the dying sunlight before it came down in her direction.

And never connected.

A scaled coil had managed to pull the hammer back and managed to bring the struggle to a standstill– at least for a moment. Master Viper pulled against the other’s grip, the hammer waving about somewhat as the both of them struggle to take control.

And suddenly she was pushed– pulled?– and everything blurred.

There was a wingbeat, the sounds of metal clattering far away, and old weathered hands trying to shake her into a semblance of lucidity. Mei struggled to sit up for a moment, but even that was too much– before she knew it, the rest of the world melded into black.

The last thing she saw before blacking out was the wolf retreating from the masters, running to the mountains.

Mei woke up with a start. From the amount of light that was in her room, the most she could assume was that at least a day passed. Her hands gripped an unfamiliar blanket with floral patterns. A dull panic settled into her as she took in her surroundings. She was surrounded by unfamiliar ricepaper walls making up the perimeter of the sparsely decorated room. Save for the dresser by her feet and the unlit candle that was perched on top of it, there wasn’t much to look at.

Mei propped herself up on the headboard, and pain flared across her stomach. She instinctively clutched it, letting in a sharp intake of air as she did so.

“Miss Soothsayer, you gotta be careful!”

She looked around, her eyes falling on the now-open door. A goose with a ricehat dangling behind his back awkwardly had waddled in with some soup in a platter.

“Where is– where am I?”

He jumped back, confused eyes meeting her wild and frightened ones. “You’re in the Jade Palace,” he explained as he offered the tray. “The rest of the masters brought you up here since– uh, all the doctors kind of all evacuated. They’re still super busy, though, so that’s why they’re not here.”

Hesitantly, she took it from him, eyeing the soup with a tired gaze. As recognition dawned on Mei, she looked over the goose and squinted– what was the grandmaster’s son still doing here?

“…What?”

“Shouldn’t you be in Jiayin by now?” she pointed out. “I thought you’d be the first one out.”

Ping bristled. “I could say the same to you.”

Mei sighed. He’s got her there, she thought as she took in a quick sip of the soup. She wasn’t sure what had happened up here in the past few days, but the lack of any mention of the grandmaster was alarming to say the least.

His feathered brows knitted in deep thought. “So, why are you still here?” he ventured. “Are you worried about Oogway?”

Her movements faltered for a moment, hesitance creeping onto her features before realizing that the tortoise probably told them some things about himself and his homestead. “I’m worried about a lot of things,” she muttered. “And a lot of people. Including him.”

“Ah.”

“I just need to know for sure if they’re going to be alright.” Mei took in a deep breath, the smell of homemade soup filling her up and giving her a quiet sort of comfort. “I need to see with my own eyes that they’re going to be alright.”

The goose’s feathered fingers started to fiddle with the ties of the old ricehat anxiously. There was a moment of silence, one part awkward and another part mutual understanding. Mei should have realized sooner that he stayed for the same reason she did– worry, and a desire to not leave such a safe homestead.

Mei took the opportunity to eat the rest of the soup in silence. She wasn’t sure what kind of soup it was, the only discernable things she could identify in the broth was some noodles and radishes, but the spices knocked her into a more lucid state. Made everything feel a bit more real.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Ping nodding stiffly a few times, unsure of how to continue the conversation. “If it makes you feel better, he’s with Tigress. He’s completely safe up in Wu Dan!”

Mei eased back into the headboard with a sigh, into a semblance of calm… up until yet another realization dawned on her. She jerked upwards with a start and almost knocked over the platter and its contents. “No he isn’t!–”

“What?” The goose pulled the platter and the soup from her lap and set it near the dresser, perplexed by the sudden outburst.

Mei winced at the sudden bout of pain as she clutched her side yet again. “The wolf– the wolf is going up to Wu Dan!”