Last words spoken

"Mulan!"

No, it can't be, she can't possibly be gone.

The swinging gates and missing armor proved Fa Zhou otherwise as he knelt in the soggy mud with his wife's worried arms wrapped around him. The depressed, freezing rain pattered around them, but the chill went unnoticed.

"You must go after her; she could be killed!" Pleaded Fa Li and her teary, anxious eyes looked on towards the swinging doors of the gate.

"If I reveal her, she will be," Zhou merely said and held his crying wife.

He kept looking on at the gates. The lightly, blowing wind caused the doors to swing open and close. They were mocking him; laughing at him that his daughter stole his horse and burst through them to get to army camp. She ran away from home.

Deep down Zhou knew that he wasn't going to make it very far at the training camp, but up until that day he was an honorable man. He gained honor by fighting and winning war battles that left him bruised. Honor was all that mattered in the end, though. In the end of those battles, Zhou had gained it. He managed to keep it, too once he married Li. She soon became pregnant with his first and only child and that gave the family name enough honor for the moment.

Children do grow up into young adults and young adults start to age into elder characters.

Zhou was always taught that children need to uphold their family's honor. He didn't raise his daughter like society wanted him too, but he raised her with the same expectation that once she turns sixteen, she would be matched and married off to restore the family's honor once more.

Of course, that never happened.

Fa Zhou always had a hard time dealing with his stubbornness, for that was the exact reason as to why he is kneeling outside in the rain. He knew he should have swallowed his pride and not worry about fighting. He paid his dues many years ago, with the medals and battle injuries to prove it.

Mulan was right, "there are plenty of young men to go and fight for China!" Fa Zhou was too stubborn and too deaf to hear his daughter's statement.

The bitter conversation from earlier corrupted his thought process. The day in general was a disaster, especially the conversations and now this moment; the one were he realizes exactly what his last words to her were:

"Mulan, you dishonor me."

"I know my place, it is time you learn yours!"

The last words he spoke to Mulan were said in vain and out of anger, but the meaning behind the phrases spoke a harsh truth. If only he would have known earlier what would have happened. Maybe then he could have apologized and stopped her before it was too late. Now, not even the guardians could reverse time.

In that instant, Zhou realized he was the reason she left and those hard words pushed his daughter over the edge. The regret and the guilt swelled inside him and he tightened his grip around his wife. Mud and freezing rain soaked him to the core, but he didn't care. The only thing he was caring about now was his daughter, and the guilt his heart felt over those last, harsh, spoken words he had said to her.