A/N - Hello, world. This is the continuation of my previous series of KFP fics, which includes the stories "Long Shot" and "Keeping a Secret." For all of you who don't know how my weird fandom works, allow me to explain. Those of you who are familiar with my works, feel free to skip this.

You see, all of my stories are based on a really long and complicated RP I did with Cryssy-miu, AKA Jordan. Jordan wrote a Kung Fu Panda fanfic called "Redeeming Light," which we sort of stuck to while we were RPing but didn't follow completely. As a result, all of the characters had the same names and same personalities between us two, but not all the same things happened to them…as you shall soon see.

If you've never read Redeeming Light, I recommend it, but what's much more essential is reading my two other stories, "Long Shot" and "Keeping a Secret." If you've never read them, you can try to follow along with the exposition in this one, but I think you'll probably get lost. Unlike my other stories, this one is only based in the universe of that RP and was made up by me alone. Also, prepare for OCs - a lot more OCs than usual. Jordan's character Kurisu will have a very minor role, and I'll have three characters of my own showing up throughout.

So...I hope I didn't lose you with that introduction, and please enjoy A Great Escape!

A Great Escape
Chapter 1: Shock aftermath

"Oh, gods…it's happening again…"

Shen drew the blanket tighter around his shoulders, huddling into it as if that would abate his symptoms. To him, every slight tremble indicated the onset of the uncontrollable shaking, and every throb of his heart seemed to come faster than the one before it, leading up to more palpitations. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the panic flashes – or perhaps those would just wait cruelly as they had a few nights ago, springing upon him just as he was on the threshold of sleep.

Four nights ago, he'd had a panic attack, his first since he was a chick. It had occurred after a normal day; nothing frightening had happened, he wasn't sick or hurt, and there was no reason for him to suddenly be gripped by terror. And yet he was. One minute he'd been falling asleep, and the next a sense of dread had overtaken him, spilling into a fit of convulsions. At first he'd been afraid that he was having a heart attack or going insane again, and had tottered into his nanny's room, a trembling and inconsolable mess. It was a good thing that her room was right next to his.

His nanny was more commonly known as just 'the soothsayer.' She had once been the court advisor to Shen's parents, the lord and lady of Gongmen City, but her primary job had always been to care for their sickly albino chick. Even when he got older and began to experiment with the qualities of fireworks that should have been left alone…even when he had attempted to take over China and held her prisoner…and even when he'd survived his defeat and shunned all of her suggestions to lead his life differently now, she had always been there. He'd never been able to kid himself: if it hadn't been for her, he never would have lasted this long. When he'd stumbled into her room, clutched in the throes of a panic attack, she had swiftly and efficiently managed to calm him a bit before going to get Lady Biming, now pretty much the official healer of the Jade Palace.

Shen had ended up at the Jade Palace through an unlikely series of events, as had the soothsayer, Lady Biming, and a few of the other people who now made up his family. Huddled here tonight, he willed his mind away from the fear of fear itself, and recalled the events that had led up to this situation in a desperate hope that it could ward off the fermenting panic attack…

After suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Po, the Dragon Warrior, the foretold "warrior of black and white," Shen had sworn revenge against the warriors who had taken everything from him. He'd snuck into the Jade Palace, but weakened from his injuries and without an army to back him up, there had been only one opportunity for him to make them miserable, and that had come about when he'd spotted a kitten wandering through the palace unattended. The kitten was named Kurisu, and she was a rather young student of Master Shifu's who had been taken under his tutelage after a massacre on her village. Mr. Ping had adopted her, which also made her Po's little sister. With her still-imperfect fighting skills, she'd been an easy target for Shen to kidnap and hold for ransom.

All of that had been nearly four years ago.

Shen had brought Kurisu to his hideout at Dao-ming Temple and boastingly asked the soothsayer how this new endeavor would turn out. To his shock, his nanny's prediction had been that Shen would only find happiness if he learned to care about someone as much as himself – to care about someoneMORE than himself. Refusing to believe her, he'd treated the kitten harshly at first, but circumstances had soon begun to change. Before he knew it, he was opening up for the first time in decades, being given the opportunity to wash some of his insanity away. Kurisu grew attached to him, and eventually vice versa. When the citizens of Gongmen City had learned of his whereabouts and formed a mob bent on killing him, he'd nearly sacrificed himself to save her. And so, with Kurisu's insistences that she refused to be parted from him, Shen had been taken into the Jade Palace. But he was faced with a challenge: repaying his massive moral debt.

Once again, fate had intervened, and his circumstances had made that task surprisingly simple – not easy, just clear and apparent. First he'd been given the opportunity to make up with his best friend Xun, AKA the wolf boss. Then he'd had a chance to make things right with Lady Biming, a panda woman who had been spared because she'd been his healer when she was younger (and she also happened to be Po's mother, leading to reconciliation between Shen and his former enemy at last). And after managing to do the right thing not once but several times, Shen's circumstances became more than bearable…he was happy. At long last, he was at peace. He had a family and a place where he belonged.

So really, there was no reason for him to be having panic attacks, and yet just that had happened.

First there had been his initial panic attack four days ago, and then there'd been another one two days later. Lady Biming, who had effortlessly resumed her role as his healer, said that she thought the attacks were nothing to worry about and that she'd seen plenty of patients with similar out-of-the-blue symptoms. Her reassurances did not change the fact that Shen had barely slept for several nights now, that he was exhausted and driven to the end of his nerves, and that he lived in constant anxious anticipation of having another attack.

Which brought him full circle, back to tonight, back to the slight trembles and pounding heart and threat of unbridled terror creeping over him…

Someone knocked on his door, and he flinched as if someone had fired a cannon beside his ear.

"C-come in…" he croaked, lifting his face only slightly out of his protective cocoon of blankets.

The door cracked open, and the soothsayer padded into his room, dressed in her sleep robe and holding a candle. "Are you going to bed, darling?" she called softly.

Shen kept his beak shut. He WANTED to sleep, truly he did; he was exhausted, but it would be wishful thinking to hope that he'd get any rest tonight.

The soothsayer, being practically his mother, frowned and came forward. "It's not happening again, is it?"

He bobbed his head slightly.

She sighed harshly. "Shen. At this point, you're really just doing this to yourself…"

"Do you think I can simply stop being afraid?" he snapped, but his shattered voice made him sound more frightened than irritated.

She pursed her lips. "I'll be right back," she said, and left the room without bothering to close the door.

A few minutes later, she returned with a glass of water and a bottle of a sticky-looking liquid. "Lady Biming told me that it's all right to give you this. Sedating you is not something we want to get in the habit of doing, but you need some sleep…"

Shen breathed out, realizing what must be in the bottle: sleeping serum. Now he was being drugged. It would have been a relief to him, except now it seemed that even Lady Biming thought that he was getting worse...

"Am I going insane again?" he murmured, more to himself than to the soothsayer.

"No, dear, you're just going through a phase right now." She tipped a small amount of the sedative into the water, and the thick colored liquid overtook the glass in ominous-looking whorls. "It's nothing to worry about. Now, drink this. You need to rebuild your strength. After all, you'll be leaving in a few days."

Shen's eyebrows curled in confusion for a moment, before he remembered what she meant by 'leaving.' "Oh! The trip to Gongmen! I…I'd forgotten."

A few weeks earlier, he had received a message from the Masters Council, requesting his presence in Gongmen City so that he could be recruited for a special project. He had been looking forward to it for a while, but now that he was being subjected to these awful panic attacks, he wasn't sure that he wanted to go anymore. He didn't mention this now, though, and only took the glass that was offered to him, draining it in a single swallow.

The soothsayer ran a gentle hoof along his crest before standing up. "Things will get better, you'll see. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Nana." Shen sighed and dragged his tired body over to his bed, where he flopped down and waited for the sedative to take effect. All the lanterns had been quenched for the night, and it was here in the darkness that his mind was at its most vulnerable. If a panic attack was truly going to strike him tonight, it would surely do so now…

But instead the medicine and his own exhaustion overtook him so abruptly that he didn't even remember falling asleep.

A/N #2 - Heh, heh. Yeah, I know that I left White Hot Darkness sitting all by its lonesome for like two months...but, uh, I've been having these panic attacks recently, and for some reason they have actually lent me the inspiration to write this. Someday I'll go back to WHD, I swear! Until then, please enjoy this new story, and as always, I love your generous reviews!