Welcome, readers and derangers! Firstly, let me point out that this is my first venture into fanfiction for the universe of Kung Fu Panda, so, please, be nice with any reviews you leave! Now, before the story can begin, a few boring things must be covered...

Rating: K+ (may be raised. Maybe.)

Disclaimers: As if it were not obvious, I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO KUNG FU PANDA. The rights to that go to Dreamworks, and any person there that worked on the films. Also, this story is FILLED with OC's...most of which are not my own. The rights for the OC characters Kurisu, Lanying, Giao Xun, and the names used for certain canon characters (the Wolf Boss, the Soothsayer, etc.), all belong to authors Cryssy-miu and gothicorca1895. I AM USING THESE CHARACTERS WITH PERMISSION, SO DON'T SUE ME, PLEASE! This story is also not canon with either of their works, other than being placed after one of their stories for setting purposes, unless they, themselves, decide otherwise. Some of the OC's here ARE mine, however...including our main villain, who shall be revealed in this chapter.

Summary: The past has a nasty habit of coming back to haunt you. When a mysterious foe, with dark ties to the past of a very certain member of the Jade Palace, steals cannons from the factory in Gongmen, China's greatest are thrust into a battle with an enemy unlike any they've known. How do you deal with an enemy whose only real goal is to cause mayhem? Takes place after gothicorca1895's story, The Great Escape.

Notes: For those who do not know me well already, I have a genuine obsession with the Alice stories by Lewis Carroll. I plan for there to be precisely three references to the stories at this point in here, and no more; one is a character's name (our villain), the other two appear in this very chapter...but with my mind the way it is, don't be surprised if you encounter more. My apologies, if necessary.

Now, on with the show!

Chapter I: An Unbelievable Beginning

Tapk, tapk, tapk, tapk...

A short, hunched figure, leaning on a gnarled wooden cane, enters her room with a sigh. She is an old woman...

Well...technically, she's an old goat.

Literally.

She is, really, a very old lady goat...a long, white beard trails down from her white furred chin. Ivory-toned horns curl out and spread from the sides of her head, and her aged, wise eyes glimmer with knowledge. She wears a multitude of robes, in colors ranging from purple, to red, to green, with each one over the other.

Her name is Min Yun, but most simply call her the Soothsayer.

A few call her "Nana."

She sighs again; her chick had been having trouble.

Nothing new.

It was strange, she thought; so prone to illness and weakness, yet always out to prove himself strong. His pride and stubbornness were both a curse and a blessing, for the same reasons: they made him a dangerous opponent, a determined and steadfast person, and, she had to confess, a good leader.

Well...at least recently, with the last.

Her "chick" was, in fact, the infamous peacock warlord, Sheng Li, known more commonly as the villainous Lord Shen. Few knew him to be Master Shen and/or Master Sheng Li now, a member of the Jade Palace warriors in the Valley of Peace, equal to the Furious Five and the famed Dragon Warrior himself in skill.

She smirked slightly; the latter of these two wasn't very surprising.

She didn't know why, but the night's events were reminding her of the past, and she had to think back on them. Not so long ago, her precious chick was public enemy number one. A confessed madman, out to right the wrongs committed to him as a prince of Gongmen City. Born albino, Sheng Li was neglected by his parents, and shunned by many. From childhood, he had experienced psychological problems, including vivid hallucinations and horrendous nightmares. He was also prone to panic attacks and various sorts of ailments. Not expected to live past a young age, he was ignored by almost everyone he knew, and, as time went on, his inner turmoil bubbled and frothed into a dark, boiling rage of total, murderous insanity. His crimes during this time included: supposedly murdering his only real friend, a wolf guard named Xun; trying to retake his throne in Gongmen City by using an assortment of deadly cannons; and, most famously, decimating an entire village of pandas, after the Soothsayer herself had predicted he would one day meet opposition in the form of a Warrior of Black and White. Eventually, this same warrior – a remarkably laid-back panda, who just happened to be the great Dragon Warrior, name Po – defeated Shen, and the demented peacock was believed to have died when one of his own cannons fell on him, and sank his flagship into the sea.

This belief proved false.

For an immeasurable amount of time, Min Yun's chick plotted his vengeance. He eventually attempted a raid on the Jade Palace, but was caught in the act by a Palace student: a kitten, with midnight blue fur, dressed in robes of orange, named Kurisu. Kurisu, born in Japan, had been effectively adopted by Po and his goose father, Mr. Ping (Po was also adopted, needless to say), after a group of shadowy assassins had murdered her family and destroyed her home. Shen had initially meant to hold her hostage...but his plans quickly changed.

Kurisu, oddly and inexplicably, had wormed her way into Shen's heart...a time that still made the Soothsayer chuckle. It had been so long by then that she'd seen him smile with anything other than homicidal mania...let alone laugh, and play. When he was around the kitten, he was like the child he could have once been, if fate had given him a chance.

He loved the kitten. She was his sister, his pet, his cousin, his playmate...almost everything. This, and the small fact he eventually saved the Valley of Peace, helped ensure him acceptance as a Kung Fu Master in the Jade Palace.

The Soothsayer, of course, was invited in as well.

Shortly after, a few more new faces joined them: first came Xun, the once-hated and feared Wolf Boss of Lord Shen's army, who had survived his brush with death, and vowed to turn over a new leaf. Then came Lady Biming, the (at least for now) suspected lone survivor of the peacock's fabled extermination of the panda village, who was also Po's mother. She, along with the Soothsayer, had been one of the few people to actually care for the young would-be-lord as a chick. She was now a healer in the Palace.

Then came Lanying.

Shen had met her on a mission to Gongmen; he was instructed by the masters Storming Ox and Croc to return to his ancestral home to build cannons, not unlike the ones he had once used to try and kill them, ironically, to help defend the city. While there, he had run into a bit of trouble (to say the least) with a murderous bird called Lady Xuilan, who wanted to claim the palace of Gongmen, which was being rebuilt, even as she thought, as her own. The masters had called upon a family of peafowl from another land, all diplomats, to help with the situation, the Xifengs. Lanying, their lone daughter, had suffered from panic attacks since childhood, and been raised as a recluse, locked in a room and kept away from living contact for years. Shen had taken pity upon her, intending to fake a marriage to her to get her out of the house and help her with her condition, since the attacks could not be cured (he would know; he had them, too).

The results of this attempted charity case were unexpected by all. (Except for herself; she saw them in her bowl.)

Shen and Lanying had fallen in love.

Both were now happily married, living in the Jade Palace until a more suitable home for the two of them could be established in the Valley.

She sighed a third time; Lanying was the reason she was up now. The poor dear had had another panic attack, and, to make matters worse, Shen was having one at the same time. It was morbidly funny, and definitely disturbing. With help from Lady Biming, she had been able to calm them both and settle them back into sleep. Kurisu was now sleeping with them both; she didn't particularly care for Lanying – cats are possessive – but even the kitten could tell Shen needed her, just as much as he needed Kurisu-

Her nostalgia and worry shifted suddenly, changing into a deeper, darker feeling, and something stirred in her heart. She frowned.

Something's...wrong.

She turned to her bowl on the floor.

Her instincts had never been wrong before.

She bit her lip, not sure if this sudden desire to seek the future was really a good one.

Probably not...but what real choice did she have?

With more caution than usual, she took up her bowl...

Elsewhere, a lone figure grinned ferociously at the cannon factory before him.

Tapk, tapk, tapk, tapk...

He carried a cane, topped with a golden head in the shape of a dragon's head, carved from thick, elegant wood, with swirling designs of flames coiling along its length like a serpent. The figure wore a red jacket with tails, which was kept unbuttoned, with images of golden flames on his shoulders and cuffs. He wore black boots and black silk pants, held up by a simple hemp rope. On his jacket lapel was the image of a panther's claws. His chest was bare, revealing black fur, and his paws half-concealed retractable, razor-sharp claws. His eyes were blood red, and they, like his smile, hinted at more than a dash of madness. He had the black ears and long whiskers of a feline, the fangs in his gums and the swishing tail behind him making this all the more clear.

Upon his head was a tall, black top hat, with a red leather hatband.

The panther moved on, twirling his cane with every second step, looking as if he had not a care in the world. He appeared to be alone...at least, that was what Master Croc thought as he stared at the figure approaching.

"Ox!" he called. "Come here!"

Storming Ox descended the factory stairs in a flash, and stood beside his friend and fellow master.

"Who's that?" he whispered.

"No clue...but I don't think he's here on a friendly visit."

Ox nodded.

"Halt!" he called.

The figure obeyed. He was only about five yards away.

"Gentlemen," purred the panther in a casual greeting. He had a distinct foreign accent...

Japanese, no doubt.

"You are not welcome here; only Kung Fu Masters may enter this factory. Civilians are forbidden."

"Then I suppose that means I'm allowed entry?"

Ox glared doubtfully.

"Only Kung Fu Masters who are real, and welcome, may enter."

The panther yawned, bored, and checked his claws, leaning on his cane.

"Well, then it's a pity that I cannot leave just yet...my own master demands I enter this factory and bring him a little souvenir of this visit."

Croc eyed him suspiciously.

"What 'master'?"

The panther smiled even wider, his eyes shining in the shadow of his hat.

"Giao Xun."

The eyes of the ox and the crocodile widened, and then narrowed again. Ox lowered into a charging position, hooves/fists clenched, and Croc bared his teeth.

"The name of Giao Xun marks you as an enemy. Leave now, or we shall be forced to-"

"You will not be 'forcing' me to do anything, masters," growled the panther, tilting his hat slightly over his scarlet eyes. "The fact of the matter is that I am here to get a cannon, and I will be completing that job, and nothing, not you nor anything else, is going to keep me from fulfilling my mission. It is as much a personal matter as an errand for my superior."

"All the more reason for us to keep you out," snarled Croc. Ox snorted in agreement.

The panther just smiled.

"By all means, try," he purred, and spread out his arms, as if in welcome.

Oh, he's asking for it now...

"Go."

"Sorry. The time for negotiation has passed," hissed the panther, smirking. "If you want me to leave, then go on...come here. Kill me if you must. I will not be making a live exit empty-handed."

Storming Ox needed no more persuasion; he charged forward, horns leveled with the shady panther's chest. The cat did not move a muscle, did not budge an inch...

Exactly six inches between himself and Master Ox's horns later, the panther flipped into the air, leaping over the master's head, and brought his cane down near the base of his neck.

Master Croc stared in disbelief as Storming Ox fell, brought down by a strike to a very special pressure point.

The panther sneered at the ox, and sniffed.

"Really? Is that all? I'd expected so much more..."

Enraged, Master Croc pounced. The panther moved to the side, and was brought to the ground by the lashing tail of the reptilian warrior. Before he could be struck again, the panther was on his feet, laughing hysterically as he jumped onto the face of his opponent, and leapt off again. Furious, Croc turned, jaws open...

A cane jabbed him in the eye, and, before he could react (which, by the way, would have taken less time than a lighting bolt to strike), he felt paralysis take over him as a pressure point was touched by a claw.

The panther stared down at the fallen masters with a smug smirk.

Pathetic old brutes, he thought darkly. Didn't anyone teach them not to judge books by their covers?

"Boys!" he called out. "As a walrus acquaintance of mine famously said, 'the time has come.' You know exactly what to do."

Out of nowhere, hordes of panthers, wearing masks that concealed all but their red eyes, all wearing red vests with panther claws on their chests, jumped into view; out of trees, from behind walls, from the back of the building. They threw down guards, knives embedded in them, as they moved, storming into the factory.

The panther, Maddohatta, grinned as he watched his men work.

So begins the fall of China...

The Soothsayer gasped in horror, falling over, her cane rattling away from her grip.

Out from her bowl rose a frightful apparition: the flaming head of a great, black cat. It snarled and laughed, and in her chest she could feel a sense of rage and rolling insanity, a blanket of treachery and bloodshed and cruelty.

With a shudder, she realized these feelings were not unlike the ones from a different vision, that one of a great black bird, many years ago...a vision that haunted all in the Palace...

The cat roared, and then vanished in a flash of light, leaving only a smoky smile, which also vanished within time.

The Soothsayer stared at her bowl with terrified puzzlement.

For once, she had no real clue as to what she saw, but she knew one thing: it could not be good at all.