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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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Shan-Yu's master archer Batu was stationed at the ledge of the balcony, watching over the side, his bow and arrow easily accessible in the event that someone foolishly thought they could try to scale the wall of the palace from the square and climb up to rescue the bound Emperor. He listened as his leader spoke to the old man again, his tone threatening but low, almost teasing. He spoke slowly, letting each word sink in so that the Emperor would have no doubt that he was beaten. Though his back was to him, he knew Shan-Yu was circling the Emperor, like a hawk preparing to descend on its prey.

His friend and leader could be reckless at times, especially when his fury got the better of him. He knew Shan-Yu had a score to settle. Something had happened. He didn't know the details, but somehow there was a link between the great Hun warlord and this Emperor, whether it was by blood or something else he didn't know. He would never ask. It was personal and his leader had never spoken of it.

But he was always willing to listen to Batu's advice. Sometimes he took it. When they knew that the Imperial Army was waiting at the Tung Shao Pass for them, he had advised caution, telling Shan-Yu that they could easily avoid them. But Shan-Yu didn't want to avoid them; in fact, he rarely chose the cautious method. They had defeated the Imperial Army there and the general that Shan-Yu had referred to as 'arrogant, just like his Emperor'.

"Did you really think your Great Wall could stop us, old man?" he was saying to the Emperor now. "The rest of my army is on the way here, and they will have no problem getting over your wall, any more than we did. With your army destroyed, no one can stop us now."

~~~

Mulan found herself drenched in sweat, tears streaming down her face when she became conscious. She opened her eyes as she felt something cool and damp placed on her forehead and found Bi sitting beside her, bathing her face.

“Are you alright?”

Mulan merely nodded. Her throat felt too dry to speak and she had a headache. After getting through all of Shang's training and her experience in battle she had hoped her body would be stronger, more resilient than this. She had no recollection of ever being this sick, even with the worst illnesses she had as a child.

“You were…you seemed to be having a bad dream.”

She closed her eyes, not answering. She knew Bi had seen her tears and was somewhat embarrassed.

"Well, at least your fever broke now. Dr. Kong will be here this afternoon to check on you. There's a cup and some water for you to drink." She gestured to the bedside table.

"Thank you," she rasped.

When Bi left the room, Mushu crawled out from under her pillow to talk to her.

"You were crying and mumbling in your sleep."

"What did I say?"

"Nothing coherent. I can guess what your nightmare was about though."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Don't worry, baby. The bad dreams will stop eventually."

She didn't answer him. They would never stop. The images were too vivid and too burned into her brain; the image of Shang standing over her with her father’s sword, the look of wrath and pure hatred of her that contorted his handsome features. His dark eyes were cold, piercing, and she could see the brutality in them; how capable and willing he had been to strike her down. She had no doubt that he was going to kill her; she could see it in his eyes. He had chosen not to, and she still didn’t really know why.

His face had turned to stone after he dropped the sword and his words were terse and toneless. A life for a life. My debt is repaid.

She had been left with her ultimate dishonor and he had gone off with the rest of the troop to celebrate their victory. She remembered the moment that Chi-Fu yanked her out of the tent half-naked and threw her down in the snow for all to see; her face burned with humiliation as she thought of it, as if she were living through it again. She had been so exposed, so vulnerable. She had no top on; just the bandage wrapped around her breasts and the thin blanket clutched against the front of her body to hide her nakedness. She supposed she deserved it; she'd gone where she didn't belong.

She had worked so hard to earn the respect of her captain and the others. She never imagined that Shang would ever return the attraction she had toward him; after all, he had only known her as a boy soldier. But at least she’d had his respect and, to a certain degree, his friendship and trust. Now she was someone who had lied to him and betrayed him.

She had screwed up everything. She had dishonored her father twice in one day. She had gone to fight in his place, wanting to make up for it, hoping to prove herself and failing miserably.

“Shit!” she muttered as the tears began to stream down her cheeks again.

~~~

Shan-Yu and his men had left Shang in the locked room without a word. He was a prisoner; but at least they had untied his feet and his hands from behind his back so he would be comfortable and able to eat; and they had brought him to a room rather than a prison cell.

He rubbed his wrists, trying to bring the circulation back, then sat on the bed in the room, leaning down to do the same with his ankles. He straightened up again and took a closer look at his surroundings. The room was windowless, so the only way out was through the door and past the guards.

He didn’t understand why they were treating him so well. From what his father had always told him about the Huns, this was odd behavior for them. He was sure that they wanted something from him. Maybe they were planning on torturing him. But what were they waiting for? They hadn't even asked him any questions.

He sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and supporting his head in his hands. He knew that Shan-Yu was waiting for a missing soldier and that he was talking about Ping.

He would be waiting forever, Shang thought, ironically. There was no Ping and that soldier was no soldier. She was a dishonorable and dishonored woman named Mulan that should have never been there in the first place, and she would never be coming there.

Only deep in his heart he knew that she was a soldier and had proven herself as one, as unbelievable as that was. She had lied to him, had dishonored the Imperial Army and had made a complete fool out of him, stirring up in him his own fear of his inability to command. Though he was ashamed to admit it, he knew that she was a better strategist and she had more courage than him. She had saved them by executing a brilliant, courageous tactic without his permission, disobeying him in truth, but it had been the right thing to do. And that had been alright with him when he thought that she was Ping, a man. Knowing what she really was, it disturbed and confused him now, and he felt bitter resentment toward her.

He considered her to be as much his enemy as Shan-Yu, and if he ever by some odd chance saw her again he knew that anger and bitterness toward her would still be there. But the truth was he was more livid at himself than at her, angry and disgusted with his own failure and ineptness.

She was on her way home, if she hadn't frozen to death. A tinge of guilt rose in him as that thought came to his mind but he suppressed it.

He hadn’t been able to execute her, to carry out the Emperor’s law and fulfill his duty. If it hadn’t been for the Huns showing up there, who knew what the Emperor might have done to him when he found out. The thing was she had saved their lives. How could he execute her after that? Taught the ways of the warrior from the time he was a small boy, the concepts of honor, justice and loyalty had been ingrained into him. And there was no justice or honor in murdering an innocent girl, and one who had put the lives of her captain and the others, and her country, before her own. She had saved his life; so he gave Mulan her life in return. A life for a life.

If his father’s army hadn’t been decimated, Shang would have met him in that village, with his troop. He wondered if his father would have known instantly that Ping wasn't a man, seen what he hadn't been able to see. Probably. Would he have been proud to see how well Shang had trained the inept recruits that had been brawling in the camp when he left Wu Zhong?

The general never got to see Shang's success. The grief weighed on his heart as he thought about that now. And he wondered if his father had even thought him worthy of the rank. His father had been arrogant, not just proud. Shang knew that. The general had given the rank to his son as a boost to his own ego, to show himself off; to show that not only was he a great general, but his own son was already a captain and on his way to greatness too. Though Shang had always been confident in himself as a skilled and courageous warrior, he had serious doubts about his command abilities. Would he have ever been made a captain if his father wasn’t a general, and a highly trusted one?

For what it's worth, I think you're a great captain. He sighed, remembering those words. Great, the woman in the camp thought he was a great captain.

Shang raised himself up and sighed again, shaking off the regret and foolish self-doubt and self-pity. There were more important things to concentrate on. He didn’t know where the rest of his small group of men was, or if they were even still alive. Yao, Ling and Chien-Po seemed to have completely disappeared. Had they actually gone and deserted?

Well, he didn’t want to fight anymore either. The naïve dreams of glory in battle that he had just a few months before were now gone, replaced with an all too deep understanding of the brutality and ugliness of war. He wanted to just sleep and never see Huns or the army again. But he couldn’t. The Emperor was being held somewhere and he had to somehow figure out a way to escape from this room and save him. He failed the first time, but he had to try again.

~~~

Bi ushered the odd trio of Imperial soldiers to a table and took their order. It was late in the afternoon, not quite time for dinner, and the tavern was empty so she was working the bar alone.

She poured drinks for the three men and made casual conversation, trying to feel out if they were interested in anything else there other than drinking. They had merely stopped to rest and quench their thirst and as she listened to them converse, she inferred that they were trying to find someone.

It was hard to believe these three men were Imperial soldiers, despite their uniforms and armor. The large one, Chien-Po, seemed too gentle and serene to be a soldier, but she supposed he was probably strong given his size. The skinny one, Ling, didn’t seem serious enough. But he was friendly and likeable. It was hard to tell with the third one, Yao. He was short and squat, somewhat rough-looking with a beauty of a black eye and a moustache and beard. He certainly seemed to like a fight, judging by how he egged on his pal Ling during their entire discussion. It was a good thing that there wasn’t a crowd there; she imagined she would have a brawl on her hands.

“Ping lives in Wan County,” Yao was saying now in his gruff husky voice.

“Mulan,” Ling responded with annoyance, elbowing his friend.

Bi started at that. “Mulan?”

The three soldiers whirled around to face her.

“You know her?” Ling asked.

“There is a girl named Mulan here. She came here a couple of nights ago.”

"Wow, that was easy," Yao remarked.

“Would you tell her that we’re here?”

“Sure. We made her stay because she’s ill. She has a throat infection, so the medic in town has been looking after her. Who is she?”

“She’s…a friend of ours,” Ling answered, glancing at his two friends.

“She’s sick from being out in the cold,” Bi heard Chien-Po murmur softly as she headed toward the stairs.

“Yeah, thanks to Pretty Boy,” Yao muttered angrily. “After she saved everyone…”

“Well, at least he didn’t kill her.”

"Still...the way he let that scum Chi Fu treat her..."

"He is the Emperor's council," Ling remarked snidely. "That's what he always said. Anyway, we were mean, too. We played mean tricks on her."

"But that was before we knew she was a woman."

Bi was paused at the bottom of the stairs, wanting to hear the rest of this conversation. But the three men had fallen silent suddenly, maybe knowing she was there, so she began to quietly climb the stairs to get Mulan.

~~~

Boke and a few of his men had silently and stealthily made it to the top of the Great Wall before the others, knocking out the guard stationed at that tower before he knew they were there and preventing him from lighting the signal fire, warning the others of their presence. With the rest of the guard towers remaining unlit along the wall as well, the remainder of Boke’s army had scaled the wall in the dark with great ease.

Now they rode swiftly through the night toward the Tung Shao Pass, as Shan-Yu had advised in his message. The falcon was on his way back to his master, a response from Boke tied to his leg, announcing that they had gotten past the Great Wall and would reach the Imperial City in just three days. No one spoke. Boke communicated to his troop with silent hand gestures, and the only sound in the night was their horses' hooves pounding the ground. They ate on horseback, not wanting to lose time, stopping only for short bouts of sleep.

The Imperial Army protecting the area of China to the north of the capital had been defeated by Shan-Yu, and no one intercepted them as they thundered toward their destination. Apart from their allies in the Imperial palace no one in China was expecting them.
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Shan-Yu's Victory