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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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She wouldn’t leave, no matter what happened. He knew it.

With a sigh, Shang shook his head as he sat on the bed thinking of her. How could she have formed such a bond with their enemy in such a short time, especially when she knew that he’d been responsible for his father’s death?

He sighed again, thinking about her words. She had said that Imperial troops had killed Shan-Yu’s wife. Had his adversary been so grieved that he’d been driven to invade their country and kill every man and woman there in retaliation? Would he feel better if he turned around and killed Shan-Yu to avenge his father’s death? Or would it be killing begetting more killing in a never-ending cycle, just as she had said? Where did it stop?

And now she had killed her own baby. The doctor said that she’d miscarried from drinking all of that tea. But she must have known what she was doing. She was too smart to have just been haphazardly drinking a tea that happened to cause her to end her pregnancy.

There was a sharp, stabbing pang in his heart. It was his baby. Shan-Yu’s baby. Or it would have been. Why did it even matter to him? And why did everything she said and did make such a deep impression on him?

Shang dropped his head in his hands, brooding. Whatever she ‘saw’ in him before, as Mushu had put it, didn’t matter any more. It was too late for that and she really did seem to care about Shan-Yu now, as unbelievable as that was. What exactly did Shan-Yu do to her that she was so in his power, so devoted to him?

Well, he wouldn’t stand in their way. At least she had accepted his apology. They had come to an understanding of some sort, and there was forgiveness between them, though they hadn’t spoken many words. He and Mulan were friends now and there was a strong bond between them. She had made it clear that she cared about him and was willing to do anything to help him; and he knew he would do anything he could to help her, maybe even help her to get home if she would go. Though without her even telling him, he knew that she felt as if she could never go home, that it was too late. Too much had happened.

He lifted his head and glanced across the room into the separate alcove, where Dr. Kong was asleep. The medic had been keeping watch on Mulan almost twenty-four hours ever since the incident in the garden. And she’d wept on and off for nearly that long. How he wished that everything could have been different for both of them.

He found himself staring at the wall, turning a thought over in his mind. It was impossible to get to Mulan’s room. There were guards even inside the wall, in the hidden passageway, keeping vigil to make sure no one got into her chamber through those tunnels. But he’d been moving through all of the passageways after he escaped from the room that they’d held him in and he knew how to find his way, even through sections that he’d never been in. His father had told him about those tunnels long ago, and how to navigate them.

Maybe he wouldn’t be able to get to Mulan right away, but he had to do something. He’d already managed to stealthily and quietly kill a few of the guards when he escaped the first time. It would be a slow process, but he could explore and see exactly what was going on from a covert place. Then, if he could take them out softly and slowly, one by one, maybe he could gain an advantage before they even realized it had happened. And now that he was wearing a Hun uniform, chances were no one would notice him. Only that falcon; but the creature seemed to be hanging around with Shan-Yu all the time now, looking after his master.

Striding over to the wall, he began to repeat the exercise of feeling slowly, searching for a spot that would give way and offer him access.

~~~

The moment Shan-Yu stepped into the room the three odd-looking men dressed as concubines whirled around to face him and took a defensive stance. Suren alighted from his master’s shoulder and began to swoop toward the doorway, squawking loudly, attempting to draw the attention of Shan-Yu’s closest comrades.

“You three must be here for Mulan,” he remarked, smiling wolfishly. “We’ll have to find you some decent clothing to wear. After risking your own lives to come in here to find her you deserve to face your fate with dignity and honor, not dressed like that.”

They were excellent fighters, most likely trained by that Imperial commander who had no doubt trained Mulan as well, since she’d obviously been in his regiment. He suppressed a wince as that thought crossed his mind. The fact that she was the missing soldier, the soldier from the mountains that had destroyed his army, completely occupied his mind now, and every other small thought about her that came to him seemed to intensify the feelings of anger and disappointment. He still couldn’t get over the idea that a beautiful, tiny young girl had defeated him and hundreds of his soldiers. Boke had remarked that she would be his downfall; but she already had been before she even came to the palace.

In the mean time, he had more immediate things to worry about; he was outnumbered three to one. Having sounded an alarm, Suren soared back into the room to aid his master, flying at each of the assailant’s heads in turn and beating them with his wing. Several minutes later two men from Shan-Yu’s army that had survived came running in. Unegen and Oyugun evened the fight, taking on the short stout man and the taller lanky fellow respectively while Shan-Yu dealt with the large round man who he’d recognized to be much too large to be a concubine.

Too engrossed in fighting, none of them noticed as a panel of the wall slid open behind them and the Imperial commander stepped into the room, his sword drawn.

~~~

Wide awake and panicked, Mulan had gotten dressed and hurried out to the main chamber, snatching one of the swords that had been collected from her former troop from the weapons closet, knowing that she needed to protect herself. There was no doubt that Shan-Yu knew exactly who she was now, and there was no telling what he would do. She knew that she didn’t want to harm him, but she had to be ready for anything. Clutching the hilt of the sword tightly, she returned to her chamber and paced back and forth nervously, brooding.

Ever since she’d been there with him, Shan-Yu had been calm, easy-going even, his anger channeled and contained. So different from the fury that poured out in that terrible howl that had filled her ears in the mountains when he realized that his army was about to be buried because of her. The same one that had just jarred her out of slumber a short time ago. He hadn’t been in the room with her. In fact he’d been nowhere near her. But she had heard it.

There was no denying the rage and bitterness that lived inside him. She sensed it in him when he made love to her, felt its presence threatening to overwhelm him. Yet he never hurt her. Mesmerizing with his intense, magnetic nature, skillful and smooth, he made certain that every touch, every move he made caused her pleasure not pain.

But now he knew who she was and she had no doubt that without effort he could break her in half if he wanted to. Tall and massive, with thick powerful legs and arms, and a thick, muscular chest, he even dwarfed Shang, who was a large, brawny man himself. He could kill her with one blow.

And perhaps he had good cause to. He certainly had a right to be furious; she’d destroyed his army, almost in its entirety. He cared about his men as much as Shang cared for their little troop of recruits. Her actions in the mountain helped their troop and she had no regrets about that; she’d saved her friends, she’d saved Shang. And at that time, her duty was to her captain and to her Emperor; that was all she knew. Shan-Yu and his army of Huns were the enemy, they had invaded; and they were evil. It was that simple then. But things would never be that simple again.

Mushu continued to watch her in silence, his lizard-like features contorted into an unhappy expression. He wanted to go to Shang and tell him what had happened, to obtain his aid, insisting that she was a third of the size of Shan-Yu and could never take him on one-on-one.

“Shang would never get past the guards in the hallway, Mushu,” she had answered. “Besides, there’s no reason for him to be involved. This is between Shan-Yu and me.”

My lover and my enemy, she thought to herself now.

She paced back and forth, anxiously waiting for Shan-Yu’s inevitable return to their room.

~~~

They had been evenly matched until he appeared and he was upon them before they even knew he was there, his sword hacking fiercely at Shan-Yu’s two men.

Shang prepared to defend himself as Shan-Yu roared in frustration and lunged toward him.

“Captain, where’s Mulan?” Ling called out as Shang deflected a blow from the Hun leader’s sword.

“In the main chamber. Go through the panel in the wall and turn right,” he responded breathlessly as his sword collided with Shan-Yu’s and the latter pushed forward, forcing Shang’s arms back toward himself, pushing his body against him and pressing the crossed swords against his chest. It took all of the young captain’s might to do it, but he gathered his strength and pushed forward, forcing his adversary away from him. He lurched forward, using the weight of his body for added strength and he pushed his enemy’s arms back so that the crossed swords were now pressed against his shoulder, the point of Li Kuang’s sword almost scraping Shan-Yu’s ear.

With a burst of energy, Shan-Yu forced Shang’s arms back and lurched forward, slamming his body against him and knocking him onto the floor. His weapon went flying out of his hand and he rolled over quickly as the point of Shan-Yu’s sword came toward him. He snatched up his sword and deflected the blow, then quickly raised his legs and kicked him as he came toward him again. It bought him time to stand up and regain his balance, and once more the two warriors faced each other, swords poised.

“Mulan would not like us fighting like this,” the Hun leader remarked in a low, rumbling voice that came out effortlessly, as if he wasn’t in the middle of a fight to the death. “But seeing as she destroyed my army I don’t feel I owe it to her to spare your life just because she cares for you.”

“She didn’t destroy your army,” Shang retorted quietly, meeting Shan-Yu’s eyes firmly. “I did. I was the commanding officer and I was responsible for the actions of my soldiers. She was following my orders and the decree of her Emperor to protect our country. If you’re going to take your anger out on anyone, take it out on me.”

“I will do what I wish with her, Commander,” he responded and laughed. “I am her first and only man.”

Shang felt his face grow red with embarrassment at the insinuation and his jaw tensed with fury as he faced his adversary, feet planted, sword poised. Shan-Yu’s remark had caught him off guard and he struggled to quickly regain his composure. In the same way as he was studying his opponent, the Hun leader was watching him carefully, looking for physical weakness as well as his emotional vulnerability.

“My men will rescue her,” Shang spoke up, wanting to turn the tables on his enemy and expose his vulnerability. “She won’t be here for you to do what you wish…”

“I have men posted inside the wall, right at the entrance to her chamber. They’ll stop your men.”

There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice as he uttered the word.

“I killed your guards. None of them expected me to be inside the wall, coming from another direction, and I got them before they even knew what hit them. It was easy,” he continued to taunt, using the same tactic as Shan-Yu in an attempt to throw him off balance.

“Very good, Commander,” Shan-Yu laughed, unruffled. “Yes, we really could have been good friends if circumstances had been different.”

For several more minutes they studied each other, neither of them making the first move. Finally they lunged toward one another at the same time.

Shan-Yu was a fierce fighter, as he’d learned from the first time that he’d been up against him in the palace; but Shang had become more familiar with his style after those first fights and he held his own now, despite the extent to which his enemy dwarfed him. Parry for parry, blow for blow, they matched each other equally and the only end that appeared to be in sight was when one of them got tired first. Otherwise this fight would no doubt end in a stalemate, with both of them collapsing from exhaustion at the same time then starting again when they’d rested.

~~~

Mulan jumped as the panel in the wall behind her slid open. She was not expecting Shan-Yu to come from that direction. Tears of relief nearly flooded her as she caught sight of three familiar faces.

“Are you alright, Mulan?”

She dropped the sword and rushed forward to hug her three friends, all of them now dressed in Hun uniforms.

“Are you okay?” Ling asked again.

“I’m fine. How did you know where to find me?”

“The captain told us. We almost got killed and he showed up at just the right time.”

“Where is he?”

“Fighting Shan-Yu.”

She snatched up her sword again, alarm sweeping through her. “We have to get to them.”

“Don’t worry, Mulan,” Chien-Po spoke up. “The captain can handle himself. We’ll deal with Shan-Yu and then we’ll all get out of here.”

A pang of sadness pricked her heart, but she suppressed the feeling and smiled at her friends. With a start she stopped and squinted at Ling’s face, noting a spot of what looked like white powder on one side of his face. “Is that makeup on your face, Ling?”

His hand flew up to wipe it off.

“You all had makeup on!” she exclaimed, examining their faces closely, noting the leftover smudges here and there that they’d missed when trying to remove it.

“We came in disguised as concubines. Shan-Yu found us.”

“I take it he wasn’t fooled,” she remarked, beginning to laugh as the thought of Shan-Yu encountering her three friends in dresses and makeup came to her mind. “And, Yao, you shaved your beard off.”

“Well, I couldn’t very well pass as a woman with a beard, could I?”

“You couldn’t pass as one without a beard,” Ling quipped.

“Well, good,” Yao snapped at his friend.

“Where did you get the Hun uniforms?” she asked, genuinely curious and also attempting to distract them.

“There are some men that we found dead inside your wall here. They don’t need the uniforms anymore and I don’t know about these girls, but I certainly didn’t want to run around in a dress anymore.”

“Boke might have done it,” she mused.

“Who’s that?”

“Shan-Yu’s cousin. He suspected that Boke was plotting to kill him; he’s probably going after his men first.”

“Or maybe the captain killed these guys. He’s been moving around inside the wall.”

“That’s how he got to us when we were fighting Shan-Yu and two of his men.”

Mulan grabbed the lantern off of her side table and moved past them, stepping into the passageway, Mushu perched on her shoulder again. “Would you be able to lead the way back to where their fighting?”

“I think I would,” Chien-Po replied.

The three men climbed back inside the wall behind her and pulled the panel shut. There were lanterns lit in places, but the light was sparse and they stumbled over the bodies that were sprawled on the floor. Finding their way to the main corridor they moved more easily through it, Chien-Po in the lead.

As they neared one of the doors along the way, they found another body sprawled on the ground. Kneeling down and shining the lantern in front of her Mulan recognized the face of Shan-Yu’s cousin Boke.
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Shan-Yu's Victory