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Shan-Yu's Victory	By : lightbird Category: +M through R > Mulan (Disney) > Mulan (Disney) Views: 16642 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own the cartoons of Disney Studios, nor any of the characters from them. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Shang swiftly made his way through the hidden passage. He had finally happened upon a panel of the wall that he was able to push inward and slide sideways, revealing an entrance to a tunnel inside the wall, just as his father had spoken of.

The general’s unique sword was tied to his waist and his hand went down and rested on the hilt every once in awhile. It was one of the few things of his father’s that he had left and having it back gave him some comfort in an odd way.

His thoughts went to Mulan again. It was thanks to her that he had the sword. She was still with Shan-Yu, her life in danger most likely; and once Shan-Yu realized that he was gone she would very likely be blamed, since she was the one that had access to him. If the guard gave word that she had left something with him, even something as innocent as a blanket, he might put everything together.

Shang’s stomach clenched and his heart went into his throat. He had to figure out a way to get to her. If she was killed for aiding him…

He couldn’t let that happen. He picked up his pace, beginning to formulate a plan in his mind.

~~~

“You were not very long with the Imperial commander tonight.”

Shan-Yu had been sure that the commander had taken a liking to Mulan judging from the dazed expression on his face when he stared at her in the dining room earlier. As he thought about it now however, it dawned on him that there had been familiarity and recognition in the commander’s face too.

“You know each other,” he said, quietly.

She didn’t answer.

“Is he a husband? A betrothed?”

“No,” she muttered.

The room was dark, the only light coming from his chamber, and he couldn’t see her face clearly but he could feel her shoulders sag slightly and he could sense her melancholy. He felt her body trembling against his own and against the arm he had around her waist. She was a beautiful woman, yet she was such a young, frightened child in a way.

There was a loud banging on the door to the outer chamber and Shan-Yu abruptly withdrew his arm from around the girl. He leaped up and stormed out to his own room, grabbing his sword from the weapons closet before going to the door, prepared to kill whoever was on the other side of it, interrupting him.

Boke stood there.

“What is it?” Shan-Yu growled at his young cousin impatiently.

“I must speak with you. It’s urgent.”

Boke looked extremely apprehensive, which was usually a sign that the younger man had bad news for him and was worried about his reaction. Shan-Yu stepped out into the hall, shutting the door behind him, and beckoned for him to walk with him.

~~~

“I don’t believe this,” Yao grumbled, turning back to stare at the ragged, motley group of villagers that followed them up the mountain path. “This is sad. How are we going to execute a rescue mission?”

“Hey, we used to look like that to the captain when we first started at camp,” Ling laughed. “He thought we were all pathetic.”

“That medic…I don’t know what he’s doing here. He’s too old to fight.”

“Yeah, but we may need him,” Chien-Po commented with a sigh. “It would have been helpful if Mushu had stayed with us. He’s a guardian. He could have directed us right to Mulan.”

“He had to go back to look after her.”

“Yeah, he made that well-known,” Gao commented, alluding to the night that the tiny dragon had appeared to them. They had asked Mushu for information, but all he told them was that she was caught by Shan-Yu and that he had her in the Emperor’s bedroom, which he had taken for himself.

“I have to get back to her now. I’m not letting anyone lay a hand on my baby!”

Then he had darted off, urging them once more to hurry.

“I’m glad he went to her,” Ling mused. “At least she won’t be alone with Shan-Yu.” He sighed. “I was afraid this would happen. I really was against her going in like that.”

“We were all worried about her doing it,” Chien-Po answered quietly. “But the situation was hopeless, and she wanted to do something to help. With any luck, maybe she was able to free the captain and the others.”

“I hate to be negative,” Yao interjected, “but there’s a good chance they’ve all been killed.”

Chien-Po shook his head. “I don’t think so. At least not the captain. I sense that he is alive.”

Yao stared at his large, corpulent friend then shook his head at him. “You know, you really are weird sometimes, Chien-Po.”

~~~

Shan-Yu returned to his room and stared at the closed door to the small adjoining chamber where Mulan lay, probably asleep now. He considered waking her up and helping himself to what the Imperial commander had been treated to earlier, but decided against it.

She was a real puzzle, a bundle of contradictions and mysteries, and he looked forward to unraveling them just like the material that he had felt around her waist under her dress. But he had to go slowly with her. Not only was she young and inexperienced, he had a strong sense of her perception of him as the enemy. It was almost as if he was facing a male opponent, like the commander.

Something else was bothering him now, too. She hadn’t been with the commander long enough to do anything. But he had an instinctive certainty that she and the commander knew each other, and she had been with him for just enough time to warn him, maybe even to provide him with a means of escape. She was a smart one, and he had no doubt that she was capable of that.

And now this latest report from Boke about four of the men in the palace disappearing from their posts tonight. No one had seen the missing men for hours. Either something had happened to them or they were merely shirking their duties. He was determined to personally wring each of their necks when he found them if the latter was the case.

He sighed and crossed over to the weapons closet, replacing his sword in its spot on the shelf. He pondered as his gaze shifted to the lower shelf that contained the weapons confiscated from the Imperial soldiers that tried to stop them. After staring at the collection for a minute he turned on his heel and went to the door to Mulan’s chamber, knocking. She didn’t answer but he opened the door and went in.

She was tossing and turning, moaning softly in her sleep, words that were unintelligible. He moved toward the bed slowly, captivated. The room was dark, other than the scarce light from the other room, but he could see the tears glistening on her eyelashes and on her cheeks. He stood there staring down at her for a long time, studying her face as she slept fitfully.

“Mulan,” he finally spoke softly, reaching down and wiping away a fresh tear that had fallen.

Her eyes popped open. She gasped and bolted upright, clutching the blanket up against her body and inching back away from him.

“You were having a bad dream. Are you okay?”

She stared at him warily, her eyes narrowed with suspicion and hatred. He sighed.

“You are like the rest of the people of your country. You think that we are wild, evil barbarians and that I am just a heartless conqueror.”

“Aren’t you?” she retorted, defiantly.

“It is naïve of you to think that things are so black and white. And though I realize that you are naïve…inexperienced and naïve…you seem like an intelligent girl. Too intelligent to accept that things are so simple.”

He received no answer.

“The Emperors were invaders, too. They built that wall across our land. We needed to fight back, for our own honor and pride.”

Mulan was silent.

“You didn’t know that, did you? We have had diplomatic relations, treaties with the people in the Han territory since way back. Long before I was born.”

“If you had treaties, the Emperor would have known…”

He shook his head. “He didn’t care, nor did the Emperors before him. They weren’t always on paper and many of my people don't know how to read or write. But we had trade agreements among the various tribes, with states and villages on both sides of the border, agreements made with honest and honorable intentions. There are even blood ties and intermarriages between our peoples, and many of those villages along the border were on our land, and our families lived in them. The Emperor paid no mind to that, continuing to cut us off not only from resources that we bargained for in good faith but from our own families.”

He could see the astonished and questioning look that shone in her dark eyes.

“So, as you see, there is another side to every story.”

She flinched slightly as he took a seat on the edge of the bed, studying her.

“How do you and the commander know one another?” he began to press again.

She was silent for a minute, her eyes averted. Then she faced him and quietly replied, “He found me in the village that you destroyed in the mountains.”

Shan-Yu stared at her in astonishment, wondering for a moment if maybe that’s why she looked familiar to him. But he knew he hadn’t seen any of the villagers. His army was at a distance from the village for most of the time, fighting the Imperial army with the flaming arrows that they used and then engaging in hand-to-hand combat in the valley on the outskirts of that village. That wasn’t it.

“What did those women and children do to you?” she continued.

He was silent, at a complete loss as to how to explain to this young girl the bitterness and hatred in his own heart because of similar things that had happened to his own people, his own family, in the struggle for power and land that continued to go on between the tribes in the north and the various Emperors and politicians in Chang’an.

“It’s personal,” he finally answered gruffly. “And I don’t owe you or anyone else an explanation.”

He stood abruptly and strode out of the chamber, shutting the door behind him, not seeing as a small red creature that didn’t even come up to his knee in height slipped past him and into Mulan’s room before the door closed.

He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed, forcing away the images that had been stirred up just from touching upon his background with her. Then he crossed over to the desk in his chamber, retrieving the lantern that sat upon it, and went to the weapons closet.

Holding the lantern so that the ring of light would illuminate the lower shelf, he began to search the store of Imperial swords for the one that had immediately caught his eye. It belonged to the commander and was as unique as his own.
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Shan-Yu's Victory