The Last Hope

32. Honor or Family

"Come out with our Tori immediately!" Ravan ordered from the roof.
Zedong inclined his head when he heard that. "Tori?"
"They mean me," Dao explained with a scowl.
"Or we'll massacre those two!" the panther continued to yell at them.
"NO!" Liu screamed. "Please! Then take me! But leave the little one alone!"
"Don't worry," Po tried to calm her down. "We'll take care of that." Although he didn't know how. A hostage or two, or even more, was always bad. Especially when a sick child was also involved.
Yin-Yu wrapped Liu in her wings for comfort, while Po nervously scratched his head, losing more hair that was stuck to it. Seeking help, he first looked at Ping and Pong, who just looked helpless and shocked. King Wang didn't think a direct attack was a good solution either, as did the old goat. And Sheng and Liana didn't look very confident. Eventually, Po's gaze lingered over his friends. "What do we do now? Too stupid. The masters have returned to the palace. We are on our own now."
Tigress nodded, but before she could say anything as the next-leading member, Ravan continued to yell, growing impatient. "I know you're here!" he yelled. "Come here or I'll pluck her feathers!"
Everyone watched in horror as the panther held the white chick upside down in his paw.
"Ravan stop it!" Dao yelled in Japanese. "You can have me!"
"Wait, wait, Dao," Po held him back, guessing what Dao had said. "We'll definitely find another solution."
"And which one?"
That silenced Po at first. An attack was impossible and there was no time for an ambush. And a counter offer... no, they had nothing on the ninjas. At most, they would threaten Dao's life...
"Then we'll pretend we'll hurt you, if they hurt them."
Dao narrowed his eyes. "Ravan isn't stupid."
"And if we send someone else... just for a moment, to buy time. Or if we ask for a period of reflection..."
"We don't have that time!" Dao interrupted him excitedly. "Never mind, I go voluntarily."
Po swallowed hard. "Listen, you don't have to do this. Otherwise everything had been in vain."
Dao avoided his gaze for a moment, but then he shook his head. "No matter what they do to me, I only care that the little one comes out of it safely."
"What now?!" Ravan's voice rang out to them again. "Shall I count to three?"
"No! I'm coming!" Immediately, Dao ran forward, but in the next moment something jumped in his way and pushed him to the ground. "No, you will not!"
Po looked at Shen in surprise. "Oh, you are back very soon..."
A cutting look from Shen and Po immediately pursed his lips.
But Dao quickly regained his composure and pushed his older brother aside. "Are you going to dictate everything to me again?"
Undeterred by this, Shen grabbed Dao's wings. "You want them to drug you again to be their battle puppet?"
"What else can I do? If I don't, she'll die. I know Ravan, he will not hesitate with his threats."
But that wasn't what concerned Shen. "I won't let you throw your life away for dad's other thing."
Dao knew immediately that Shen meant Xiang. He jumped up angrily. "If I'm not doing it for him, then at least for her."
Shen narrowed his eyes angrily. "She's not even really related to you. She's just your half-niece."
"Even if she wasn't part of the family, I don't want her to die!"
Shen folded his wings. "And how do you know it's worth it? Who knows, she might not be just as corrupted as her father."
Dao narrowed his eyes. "Are you any better?"
Shen seemed to have expected something like this. His beak trembled for a moment before he gave Dao a shove. "At least I'm taking care of the family now! And for the honor!"
"Since when do you care about family honor?"
"Now I do it!"
"And why not then?!"
"Family meant very little back then." Shen looked down slightly. "When I found out what was about to happen, I hoped my parents would help me. But they didn't." For a moment, Shen felt a deep sadness. "They did nothing after she said my future." His reproachful gaze wandered to Ān-Mā, who bowed her head in embarrassment. But that couldn't calm Shen against the anger that was now building up again. "Father left me with this problem. He even pretended that nothing had happened, so I acted myself. Tell me if family meant anything to him."
"How can you say that? But mother said otherwise. She even liked you better than me."
"I only found out about that later!"
"Why didn't you just live normally afterwards? You knew what could happen. Then why did you just keep going?"
For a moment, it looked as if Shen would back down, but then he lifted his head defiantly. "You have no idea what I've had to go through!"
"Then tell me!"
"Forget it!"
"Fine! You've done enough damage to the family honor as it is." His gaze wandered to the small children. "But I had a family for a fraction at least." There was silence for a few seconds before Dao finished. "At least I think I'm making the right decision. In contrast to you. Now get out of my way!"
Violently, Dao pushed his brother aside and Shen let him go, but he continued to look after him with a bitter expression on his face. Ān-Mā shook her head wistfully, and wished she had never seen the future.
Meanwhile, Dao swung himself onto the nearest roof and with a few quick leaps over the houses he finally stood in front of Ravan, who grinned broadly at him. "Apparently you are faster crawling back than running away, huh?"
Dao narrowed his eyes. "I wouldn't have stayed away if I knew what you're doing to a kid."
Ravan snorted and snapped his fingers. Immediately, the other black ninja panthers rushed over and held Dao tight. The peacock did not resist. His gaze was only directed at the white peachick, which hung limp in the panther's paw. "Well, you have me. Now give them back to the others."
Raven laughed. "That's up to you."
Everyone screamed when the panther threw the child through the air and it disappeared somewhere between the houses.
Po narrowed his eyes.
No, that couldn't be true!