In the meeting hall of the Hard Wind mountain fortress, a hero and his love prepared to wed. Normally stark with its walls, chairs, and tables of bare wood, it now caressed the eyes with soft drapery of bright red. Rough, grizzled warriors, longtime followers of the groom, held their respectful silence along with more learned guests. Kneeling before the altar where incense burned, Cold Axe looked to his bride Peach Blossom and smiled. After all the battles and hardships they had endured, their oft-delayed dream would finally be realized.

Dragging footsteps sounded from behind. In the door stooped a tall young woman, her face sallow, her armor rent and broken. How could she be here? Cold Axe wondered, heart pounding with joy mixed with a twinge of fear. Was she a ghost, or really alive? He ran to his beloved comrade's side, their sworn brother Stone Breaker close behind. Peach Blossom stared after them.

"Red Hand?" Cold Axe cried, grabbing her by the arms. Her hard biceps felt as solid as ever, much to his delight. "How, Little Brother? We thought you were dead..."

"Don't marry her," she rasped through cracked lips. "It isn't the time." Her legs gave out, and she collapsed.

Cold Axe caught her and met her eyes; she gave a weak grin. Knowing she would not want to be carried while she lived, he helped her up and lent her his shoulder for support.

#

"How can this be?" Cold Axe stood beside Red Hand's bed, he and Stone Breaker both leaning close towards her. Her room, untouched since her apparent death, seemed warm again now that its owner had returned. "Didn't you die, or was that just a dream?"

"I remember your sad face." Though her visage was still gray, she sat upright. "But it seems you were mistaken."

He recalled the ruin their enemies' blows had made of her chest, and how after days of soldiering on she had succumbed. "I felt your pulse stop. Your eyes fixed." Tears blurred his vision. "I'm happy you're back, but I don't understand. You were dead!"

"I thought I died too, but then I woke up." She smiled. "Imagine my surprise to find myself under a big pile of rocks!"

"Sorry, Big Sister," Stone Breaker said, rubbing his partly shaved head. One of the crudest looking of their circle, he had long been her closest friend. "It was me who insisted on making you a respectable cairn."

She waved dismissively and looked to Cold Axe. "I've only been gone for weeks. Are you in that big a hurry to get married?"

Her expression held no anger, which only added to his confusion. "Hurry? I've loved her for years. Why shouldn't we marry?"

"You haven't made peace with her father, have you?"

"No, but Peach Blossom and I have never let him stand between us. Did you think we'd start now?"

Her lips pressed together in concern. "He's really serious this time, or so I heard. Don't you know he's promised to wipe us out if you go through with it?"

Cold Axe's eyes narrowed, and he clenched his fists. "Of course I know. He can try."

"Did dying hurt your courage, Big Sister?" Stone Breaker asked with a frown. "We've faced stronger foes than Peach Blossom's father, and you never hesitated to fight them."

"Yes, but those battles weren't fought over a mere wedding. For the sake of the lives that could be lost, can't you try to work things out with him instead?"

Cold Axe scowled. "You know he won't listen to reason. Come on, are we children to be bullied at a whim or are we hard men?"

"Do I look like a hard man?" Red Hand asked.

He paused, then laughed. "Not at the moment. But looks can be deceiving."

She looked down. "I see... you won't delay the wedding, then?"

When Cold Axe failed to answer, Stone Breaker stepped in. "Your arrival's already caused a big interruption, and I'd wager many of the guests have already run out of patience and left. You'll reschedule out of consideration for them, won't you Big Brother?"

Cold Axe looked back and forth between his companions and sighed. Peach Blossom was going to be mad. "I suppose it won't do to proceed with the atmosphere so disrupted. The food and drink, we can use to celebrate your resurrection instead."

Red Hand chuckled. "A celebration, for me? Wait a little bit, let me get dressed and I'll be right there!"

#

Cold Axe left, leaving Red Hand alone with Stone Breaker. She picked at the fuzz of her blanket.

"Do I really look like a man?" she asked. "I don't want you to think I'm vain, but they used to say I was pretty back home."

"You look like a woman," Stone Breaker said. "A fit, beautiful woman. Big Brother already has one of his own, though. He's not the type to split his heart between the two of you."

She shook her head. "I'm not trying to steal him from her. I just wish he would acknowledge me as a girl sometimes, at least enough for me to know he remembers it."

"If it went too far the other way, he might not let you follow him into danger like you needed to. Don't be so picky. Is it not enough just to be a friend?”

"It's the way I act, isn't it? I try, you know. I mean, I started to wash my face..."

"And then insist you're fine after being impaled. I don't see you as not a woman, but for all his virtues the way Big Brother views people is simple. You're his good comrade, and to him comrades are men. I think it's something you just have to live with."

"I suppose it doesn't matter too much, like you said." Features tight with pain, she made to drag herself out of bed. "Grab me a clean outfit?"

Stone Breaker walked to the closet and removed a suitably elegant robe. "This will do?" She nodded, and he asked, "What was it like being dead, anyway? Was the underworld really a living, hungry place, like those priests told me when I was a monk?"

Red Hand froze in place and shuddered at the recollection of her experience. She seemed to have fallen into a pulsing gray sea of nightmare flesh, from which she managed to swim free just before it devoured her whole. As she had thought only the wicked suffered after death, it made her wonder if all the killing had made her evil.

"I can still say I've never been afraid in my life," she said, "but only because I wasn't alive then. And it might be time we reevaluate if our way of living really makes us heroes."

She accepted the garment Stone Breaker handed her with a puzzled look. "Let's just forget that and enjoy our reunion for now, though."

#

Cold Axe welcomed Red Hand into the noisy hall, the warriors there already busy filling their bellies with food and drink. Spotting her, they let out a boisterous roar of cheer. He handed her a bowl of wine, and upon accepting it she took a hearty gulp. Watching her hand it to Stone Breaker to share, he smiled. He and everyone else had missed her so much. Even after the argument he had just endured with Peach Blossom, seeing her back and in good spirits uplifted him.

"What do you mean, stop the wedding?" Peach Blossom had snapped in the hall outside Red Hand's room. "Just because one of your long-lost friends shows up, that takes priority over our marriage?"

Unwilling to reveal that Red Hand had requested the delay for fear of making Peach Blossom hate her more, as they both knew Red Hand had more than a comrade's feelings for him, he said, "She's like a brother to us. We thought she was dead. Can't you understand how we feel?"

"I could understand. But how many times have you put things between us aside, for the sake of your 'brothers' or your grand deeds? I don't want to settle for second place."

"I'm not asking you to. You're the only woman I love, but I'm a man too. There has to be room in my life for manly business still."

Peach Blossom scowled. "Manly business? Not every male feels he must be a big hero like you. Are you telling me they're not men, too?"

"I thought you liked me this way," he whispered. "Didn't you use to say you would never regret falling in love with a righteous fool?"

She fell briefly silent. "Some admirable traits are not always ideal. Changing for someone is a natural part of love."

"It's not as if I canceled our wedding to run off to war. Red Hand's been my comrade for years, is giving her one day so wrong?

"Why can't you be more like her?" he said then. "I've changed plans countless times on her, and she never complains like you."

Peach Blossom's eyes turned ablaze. "Be more like her? If that's what you want, why don't you just go and marry that manly brute instead?" With that, she had turned and stormed off.

Strong fingers on his shoulder brought Cold Axe back to the present. "Did you hear?" Red Hand asked with a grin. "Stone Breaker wants a toast to being together again."

Her red eyes implied that she, too, had issues that haunted her. But she was not letting them get in the way of enjoying the present, and he supposed he should not either. He took an offered bowl of wine and touched it to a ring of others. "To being together!"

A female scream pierced the air, and everyone stopped in the midst of raising bowls to their mouths. Had that been Peach Blossom? Cold Axe ran from the chamber in the direction of the sound, and shortly shoulder-charged his way into a locked changing room. Halfway dressed for travel, with packed bags strewn about her, stood Peach Blossom.

Before her wide eyes, her maid Little Pearl grappled desperately with a smoky gray tendril. The air smelled of old rot.

Cold Axe felt a slight chill, but ignorant of the threat's nature felt more puzzled than afraid. Unarmed at the moment, he grabbed a nearby bench and swung. It disrupted the tendril's form and Little Pearl dropped to the floor. The bench passed through the appendage, which reformed and reached for her again. She tried weakly to crawl away, then collapsed and lay still.

Red Hand and Stone Breaker burst into the room after Cold Axe. The terrified pallor on the female warrior's face made him asked, "What is it?"

"It looks like death," she said, almost too low to hear. For once she stood back, too frightened to jump straight into the battle.

Stone Breaker was not so affected. "Whether you be ghost or demon, I will strike you down!" He grabbed a tall clothing rack and thrust it like a spear., The tendril flowed around his makeshift weapon and enveloped him. He cried out as it lifted him off the ground, his dark skin turning lighter by the instant.

"Red Hand, snap out of it!" said Cold Axe, pulling on her arm. "Let's try hitting it with a double attack."

She gave a small nod, and together they struck out with their palms. The tendril deformed as their projected ki smashed into it, then seemed to dissipate. Stone Breaker scrambled to his feet, looking sickly pale and shaken.

"Little Pearl!" Peach Blossom said, running to her maid's side. "Little Pearl! Are you all right?" She glared up at Cold Axe. "You had better save her! Your personal grudges have already cost me too many people I care about over the years."

Bringing her to an unoccupied bedroom, Cold Axe imparted his internal energy to Little Pearl and stabilized her. Weaker due to her nagging wounds, Red Hand helped the less injured Stone Breaker. Their life forces turned out to have been damaged from contact with the tendril, and as Little Pearl remained unconscious Cold Axe worried over her.

"What was that thing?" he asked Red Hand again. Peach Blossom and Stone Breaker stared at her, anxious for an answer. "You were terrified, so you must know more about it than you’re telling us."

"I'm not sure," she breathed. "But after you... buried me, I dreamed I was being eaten by an endless gray mass. That tendril we just fought... looked like a piece of that mass."

Stone Breaker slammed the base of his clothing rack into the floor in alarm. "So you're telling us you brought a piece of underworld back with you?" He guffawed. "I suppose it's pretty impressive of you to escape a lot more of that."

"Is it gone, then?" Peach Blossom asked. "Some enemies you and your friends make, Cold Axe."

"I don't know if it's gone for good," Red Hand said. "We beat it off, but I can't tell if it's dead or just retreated."

Stone Breaker frowned. "I've heard most otherworldly manifestations remain tied to a point of origin. Maybe we should check out your grave, in this case?"

Red Hand blanched at the thought, but Cold Axe shook his head. "That's pretty far away. We should probably see if anything else happens, and only go if warranted."

#

Peach Blossom still looked ready to leave, but Little Pearl's condition forced her to stay. Cold Axe wondered if this should be considered a mixed blessing.

"I'm with child, you know," she said when they found a moment alone beside Pearl's bed.

Cold Axe blinked. His heart tossed in a storm of emotions, joy and worry, excitement and fear. Could this revelation convince her father to relent, or would it only anger him further?

"You are?" he said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted to surprise you after we were married. I was going to tell you in the hall, but that comment about being more like Red Hand hurt."

He took her hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't think-"

She pulled free of his grasp. "Well, maybe you should think. Our child deserves a father who's more than just another reckless, inconsiderate hero."

Cold Axe didn't think he was so bad. But then, perhaps he had spent too many years in the company of almost exclusively men—and Red Hand.

The next morning, Stone Breaker made an unwelcome discovery in the privy. One of the fortress' warriors lay dead with his wife, both without visible wounds yet drained of their life energy.

"It's still here," Red Hand whispered when she arrived on the scene. "We didn't kill it. And it killed again. Maybe physical attacks can't kill it."

Cold Axe groaned. "Well, what now? Back to your grave? But what do we do when we get there?"

"I did play monk for a bit," Stone Breaker said. "It may be possible to cut it off from its realm, but first we'll have to find the conduit."

"And would that get rid of it?"

"We won't know until we try."

Red Hand nodded. "Let's do what Stone Breaker says. We won't get anywhere waiting for it to attack again. But why hasn't it come after me, if it followed me to the living world?"

"Maybe because you've escaped it before, and it wants to build up its strength before attempting to take you." Stone Breaker shrugged. "Or perhaps it doesn't have any particular interest in you at all. An entity like this, we can't know if it even thinks. Either way, we have to stop it before its feeding makes it too powerful."

The three headed out, Red Hand uneasy at the prospect of revisiting her grave but doing her best to hide it. Not five miles out, they heard hoofbeats behind them. Peach Blossom rode into view, dressed in light clothes for hard travel.

"What are you doing here?" Cold Axe asked. "I thought you wanted nothing to do with me. And what about Little Pearl?"

"Your men are taking care of Little Pearl; it'll be on your head if they do anything to dishonor her. As for me, I just don't trust you to fix the problem you caused."

Cold Axe smiled to himself. Despite her harsh tone, the fact she had followed them indicated she cared about him still. He would have feared for her safety, but staying at the fortress might be no less dangerous than coming with them. At least now, he would be there to protect her.

They left the mountains and headed across parched plains, where eventually they spotted the mound of rocks that had served for Red Hand's tomb. For seconds she averted her gaze, then drew strength from her friends and approached with them. Peach Blossom followed, but kept a safe distance behind them.

"Didn't you say you dug your way out of there?" Stone Breaker asked. "It looks undisturbed."

She shrugged. "Maybe somebody fixed it." They began moving aside the rocks, and her face crinkled up in disgust. "I'm not down there, but it stinks of rot."

"So did the thing that attacked us," Cold Axe said. "Let's be ready for whatever we're about to see."

But what they found was no portal between realms or otherworldly entity. Instead, their eyes soon made out a decomposing human body.

Red Hand stared, her face turning white as ash. "I-it's me. I'm dead."

"But how can this be?" Stone Breaker cried, wrapping her in a comforting embrace. "You're right here, I can feel you, you're alive!"

"I don't know. I thought I was alive, too. But if this is my body, what's that down there?"

Peach Blossom moved closer, rare sympathy showing in her downcast eyes for the warrior girl. "Maybe your will to live was so strong, it somehow made a new body for you."

Red Hand drew her sword and raised it towards her throat. "If I'm what unnaturally connects the worlds, maybe my death will end it!"

Cold Axe grasped her wrists, stopping her. "No, Little Brother. Whether you're in your original body or not, you're here and we want you to stay. Let's not do anything rash before we know there isn't another way."

The smell of death in the air increased sharply, and they turned to regard a wagon-sized gray cloud of smoke and tendrils floating towards them. "It's here!" Stone Breaker said. He threw his spear, but it passed harmlessly through as expected.

Cold Axe pulled Peach Blossom behind himself and threw a ranged palm strike. A dent appeared in the front of the cloud, but it swiftly regained its original shape. "Any ideas?"

Stone Breaker struck with a ki blast of his own, slowing the creature down a bit though doing no lasting damage. "Maybe if I knew where the conduit was! But damn, it's gotten big fast. Wonder who it's eaten?"

Red Hand dove into her grave, right on top of the corpse inside. "What are you doing?" Stone Breaker asked.

"It could be my existence outside my body that's disrupting the natural order. Maybe if I can rejoin with it..."

The cloud surged forward. Cold Axe jumped aside, hit it with a blast to the flank that wobbled it. At least it seemed cumbersome enough to manage for the time being. "But you don't know what that'll do," he said softly. "It could kill you!"

She closed her eyes, hugged the cadaver to her chest. "Yes, but maybe it won't—I have to try something!" Then her eyes shot open and she recoiled. "Hey, this isn't my body! It's male!"

Stone Breaker hit the cloud again, leaped back from reaching tendrils. "What?!"

"You heard me! Unless I change sex when I'm dead, that isn't me." She climbed out of the grave and came to Cold Axe's side. "Let's just keep hitting it," she said without much hope. "Maybe we can wear it down..."

The trio kept up their assault from different sides, smashing the cloud about between them. Even so it remained intact, and their offense weakened as they grew more fatigued. "Looks like we'll have to run soon," Cold Axe said. But he did not know if there was anywhere they would be able to hide.

Suddenly multiple tendrils shot far out of the creature's mass, coiling around all three warriors. Cold Axe struggled hard, but there was nothing tangible to struggle against. He moaned and shuddered uncontrollably while his life force drained away. From his friends' tortured expressions he knew they felt the same thing.

Peach Blossom dashed past and threw herself into the cloud, which seemed to hesitate in surprise. Dropped to the ground, Cold Axe staggered to his feet and tried to advance. Stone Breaker held him back. "Wait! Look."

The cloud thrashed and flailed in midair, pieces of it blowing off and fading into nothingness. As more of its body broke away, Peach Blossom could be seen inside it, standing with arms spread. Then, with a mournful roar, the creature flew apart. An unscathed Peach Blossom lowered her arms, smiling.

"What was that?" Cold Axe said, mouth agape. "How could you do such a risky thing, and how in the world did you destroy it?"

"It was the new life inside me," she said. "I figured that might be the antithesis to an incarnation of death, and as I wasn't willing to lose the father of my child I had to take a chance. I must say, I'm pretty glad to have been right."

"I'm glad, too." Cold Axe hugged her. "But you have to promise never to put our baby in danger like that again."

"I can't promise. How do I know you won't need me to rescue you again?"

He smiled bashfully and stroked her head. It pleased him to see that she smiled back.

"Well, that's one disaster averted," Stone Breaker said. He turned to Red Hand. "So you're not a ghost. But how did a male corpse get in your grave?"

She looked sidelong at the hole. "I don't know. Maybe someone saw it empty and decided to use it for a dead friend."

"Some friend." Cold Axe shrugged. "Then again, maybe they were busy."

Leaning against his chest, Peach Blossom started, "So, about our wedding..."

Cold Axe tensed. Red Hand opened her mouth to speak, but Stone Breaker beat her to it. "Wedding? We don't even know what's happened since we left. Let's go home and see if everyone didn't get eaten first!"