Okay, so apologies for the wait since I finished off Mistakes and Regrets. I really wanted to knock out a few chapters for my Zootopia fics before I focused on something else. This did actually give me some time to think, though, and I realized something. I'm still not really going to be able to much different with the plot for Kung Fu Panda 3 considering for all intents and purposes the Po from M & R is now basically a more subdued version of the Po from the movie.
Still, I think I have enough of a plan put together that it can be more than just one chapter. It's still not going to be very long, but I should at least get a fair share of content out of it. Anyway, enjoy!
PS: The recap below is as far as I will go when it comes to details about the original story. I still want to give people a reason to read through Mistakes and Regrets, but this'll at least give a general idea of what happened.
FOR THOSE WHO MISSED MISTAKES AND REGRETS:
After accidentally injuring his father and four other villagers during a routine battle against bandits, Po exiles himself from the valley, returning ten years later a changed panda. While he was stronger, he also suffered from anger issues, which came to a head when he was told his entire race was murdered by a mad overlord named Lord Shen. Po and the Furious Five travel to Gongmen City, and eventually take him out, but not before Po goes through one of the most difficult times of his life in the quest to achieve Inner Peace.
A month has passed since the masters of the Jade Palace have returned to the Valley of Peace from their journey to Gongmen City.
Everything seemed to have gone back to normal for the most part, with the Furious Five spending most of their time within the confines of the Jade Palace outside of when they were needed to protect the citizens of the valley.
However, not everything was as normal as people were led to believe, though.
While Po was noticeably more outgoing and almost like his normal self after finding inner peace, there have been some moments where the anger slipped through.
One of the moments that really stuck in the panda's mind was just a day ago. His dad's noodle shop was very busy that day, so Po was asked to help out, which he was more than willing to do.
However, things were busier than even the two of them could handle, and after a string of commands from Mr. Ping that Po could barely keep up with, the panda finally snapped, shocking both his dad and the nearby patrons into silence.
Mortified, Po immediately slapped his paws over his mouth before running upstairs into his old room, refusing to come out until hours later.
By that point, Mr. Ping was forced to bring Master Shifu and Tigress down to the noodle shop to help him out, as despite the goose making all efforts to show that he didn't blame Po, the panda still refused to come out.
To Mr. Ping's surprise, though, the red panda wasn't in the mood to try and talk to Po through the closed wooden door, so while Tigress stayed by the door to serve as backup, Shifu showed some of his amazing athleticism by hopping off one of the tables, running along one of the strings of pennants hung along the roof before flipping through the open window into Po's room.
Po, predictably, recoiled in fright when he saw the projectile flying into his room, but his expression soon changed when he saw the none-too-happy look on Master Shifu's face.
"Master Shifu! I didn't expect to see you here…especially with the way you entered." said Po, forcing himself to bow in respect despite the amount of emotional pain he was in.
"I'm not the only one here, Po. Please…open the door." said Shifu, forcing himself to remain composed despite wanting to throttle the panda for the amount of stress he was putting him through.
Po, not wanting to incur Master Shifu's wrath any more than he already had, slowly walked over to the door and opened it, allowing Tigress and Mr. Ping to enter the room as well.
Tigress, being the tallest one in the room not named Po, was forced to duck as she entered, but she quickly made her way over to the panda and wrapped her arms around his scarred midsection in an unmistakable hug.
Po, meanwhile, was a little surprised at the sudden outburst of affection from the Tiger-style master. While Tigress had indeed made some strides into being more outgoing since their journey into Gongmen City, even changing her normal red vest into a golden long sleeved garment with a red vine pattern to show her new outlook on life, both Po and the others were still getting used to this new side of her.
"Po, we're here to help you. Just tell us what's wrong." said Tigress once she released Po and backed up a few steps.
Po looked like he really didn't want to confess to what he did, but after a pointed look from Master Shifu, Po realized that he needed to change his tune considering he was slipping back into the way he was before everything that had happened recently.
"I just don't understand what's going on with me. I mean, I've found inner peace, and yet there are moments when I just want to strangle someone. Not literally." said Po, quickly amending his statement after a curious look from Shifu.
Both Shifu and Tigress waited to see if there was anything else that Po wanted to say, most notably what happened between him and his dad, but the panda had so far remained silent. Despite not really having the amount of details that he was comfortable going with, Shifu sighed before speaking.
"If you are still having difficulties managing your anger issues, there must be some kind of loose end that you haven't already tied up. Is that the case?"
Shifu looked up towards Po, expecting him to have something in mind, but to his surprise, Po's face remained blank, showing him that the panda had no idea.
However, before Shifu could figure out a way to get around this roadblock, Tigress had already chimed in.
"There must be something you're forgetting, Po! Did you straighten things out with the villagers about the incident?"
Po didn't answer, but Shifu quickly noticed Po's "deer in the headlights" expression when Tigress brought up what had happened ten years ago and latched on to it.
"You didn't, did you?" he asked, leveling an accusing stare at Po.
Po struggled for a few moments, unsure of what exactly to say. Eventually, though, he sighed in defeat, figuring hiding things wasn't all that worth it.
"No, I didn't." he said, his tone noticeably subdued.
Both Shifu and Tigress sighed, the former pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers to relieve the headache that was coming on.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I'm just…scared. I don't know what they all would think if I tried to apologize for what I did then."
"Po, this really has to stop." said Tigress, her tone warm despite the stern look on her face.
"I don't know if I'm ready."
"You'd better be, Po. I am going to call for a meeting first thing tomorrow morning, and I expect you to apologize for everything that you've done that day and convince them that you can still be trusted. Is that understood?"
Po looked noticeably frightened after being asked to speak in front of the entire valley, but after a stern look from Shifu and a determined nod from Tigress, he gulped before nodding.
"Alright, I'll do it."
Satisfied, both Shifu and Tigress bowed before heading towards the door.
"I will see you tomorrow then, Po. I do hope that you will be prepared."
Po could only stare at Shifu's back, the red panda's last words running through his mind as he watched the door close behind them.
As for Mr. Ping, once the goose saw the two masters leave the room, he walked over to where Po was, pressing a reassuring wing to his son's arm before speaking.
"Don't be nervous, son. I'm sure you're going to be perfectly fine." he said, smiling.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ping's attempt at cheering Po up didn't seem to work as he intended, as Po's despondent expression didn't change all that much.
"I hope you're right, dad."
Disappointed, Mr. Ping sighed before deciding it was probably best to change the subject.
"It's getting late. Do you want to stay down here for the night? Your room is just as I've left it, as I'm sure you've noticed by now."
Po didn't answer immediately, glancing around his room for a few moments before finally giving his answer.
"Thanks for the offer, dad, but I think I'll spend the night up at the palace. There's too many memories in here."
Although noticeably disappointed by Po's choice, Mr. Ping was more than willing to let Po do what he wanted. Nodding in understanding, Mr. Ping stepped out of Po's way so that the panda could make his way towards the door.
However, to the goose's surprise, Po wrapped his scarred arms around his dad, Mr. Ping nearly letting out an involuntary squawk as he was lifted off of the ground.
Eventually, Mr. Ping was finally set back down on to the ground, and Po made his way over to the door. Before he actually went through the door, though, he slowly turned around to face his dad, a small smile on his face.
"Have a good night, dad."
Without waiting for an answer, Po went through the door and closed it behind him, leaving his dad standing in the middle of his old room in silence.
"Good night, son."
The next day came along with a bit of tenseness in the air. While Po felt that he had done enough to prepare what he was going to say to the villagers, he still couldn't help but feel nervous.
Back when he was a cub, being the only panda in a village full of rabbits, geese, pigs and other animals led to him being treated as a bit of an outcast. While his dad had been more than willing to pick up the slack in terms of interacting with his son, outside of the noodle shop Po tended to keep to himself, which meant that his public speaking skills ended up suffering quite a bit.
Growing up did lead to him becoming more outgoing (especially after his love of kung fu began to grow), but he was still never really experienced in speaking in front of large crowds.
Still, he knew that he didn't have much of a choice in the matter if he wanted to avoid the wrath of Master Shifu, not to mention helping finally eliminate the continued anger problems.
Unfortunately, the day didn't exactly end up starting as perfectly as Po wanted to, as the panda ended up getting up a little too quickly and awkwardly, pain shooting through his stomach as the scar from his recent knife wound was torqued the wrong way.
While the wound that came from one of Lord Shen's blades did heal nicely after Po spent time both in Gongmen and back in the valley recuperating, he was in fact warned by the village healer to avoid putting too much stress on the wound so that the stitches wouldn't break and reopen the wound.
Po did make every effort to follow the healer's instructions to the T, dialing back the training as much as he could manage without losing all of the effort he made to remain physically fit. It even got to the point where the stitches were finally removed, but the pain does still remain sometimes, which annoys Po to no end.
However, this time the panda was more concerned with what was about to happen more than with what was happening now, so after waiting for the pain to abate, Po slowly picked himself up, gingerly stepping into the hallway just as the morning gong sounded and the rest of the Furious Five came into the hallway as well.
"Good morning, Master!" said everyone as Master Shifu walked into the hallway like always.
"Good morning, students." said Shifu, bowing before moving into his assignments for the day. "Now, after all of you have finished breakfast, the five of you are going to head to the training hall for morning exercises."
Po quickly noticed the fact that Master Shifu was looking at everyone except for him, and he had an idea as to why that was the case.
"As for you, Po, you will be joining me as we head down to the village. All of the villagers have been notified to meet at the square in fifteen minutes, so please eat quickly."
Po looked noticeably surprised at the lack of time he was given to prepare, so he quickly made his way over to the kitchen to prepare something to eat before he went down. As for the rest of the Five, they weren't on as much of a tight time schedule as Po was, so they were in much less of a hurry to eat.
Thankfully, Po managed to finish his breakfast with five minutes to spare, so after saying a quick goodbye to the Five and washing his dish in the sink, Po quickly made his way to the Thousand Stairs where Master Shifu was already waiting.
"Good, you're here. Come on, the villagers are waiting."
Without waiting for an answer, Shifu began making his way down the stairs, his staff clacking every so often as it contacted the stairs.
Po, meanwhile, took a few seconds to readjust his vest (which was now a dark blue after his last one was destroyed during the events in Gongmen) before making his way down the steps just behind Shifu.
After what felt like forever to the panda, the two of them finally reached the bottom to find what seemed like a pretty decent crowd standing a good distance away from the steps as the two masters made their way down.
As Po made his way over to the crowd, he was keeping himself busy trying not to hyperventilate, but he didn't get much of a chance before Shifu started to speak.
"Citizens of the Valley of Peace, I thank you all for joining us on such short notice." said Master Shifu, holding his paws up as he addressed the crowd. "I apologize for the lack of urgency with this sort of meeting, but the Dragon Warrior wishes to get something very important off of his chest."
Shifu then stepped aside, and all of the eyes of the villagers moved to where Po was standing, some of them narrowed as they weren't quite ready to trust Po just yet.
As nervous as Po was, though, he was more determined to get the villagers on his side once more, so after letting out a big breath, he began to speak.
"Now, I'm not exactly sure how many of you were there on the morning when my actions ended up causing some of you to be injured. I'm sure some of you haven't forgotten about that day, even if you or your loved ones happen to be one of the ones injured."
Po paused to collect his thoughts, glancing at some of the more angry villagers before continuing on.
"The only reason I'm standing here in front of you is simply to ask for your forgiveness. I know it's been ten years since it happened, but it's tortured me ever since then, as you can probably tell from the way I look." he said, spreading his arms wide so that they could all see the scars on his body as his expression showed just how badly the whole ordeal had affected him.
"Anyway…" he continued, sighing heavily. "That's all I have to say. I understand if you still feel the need to hate me for what I've did, but all I'm asking is for another chance to prove I'm capable of protecting you."
Po let his head fall, his expression downcast as he prepared to make his way back to the palace. However, to his surprise, he was met with a slowly rising round of applause as it started with one villager before spreading to the rest.
Surprised, Po could only stare as all of the villagers' expressions were way more forgiving than what he was used to over how long this has gone on. This even managed to bring a tear to the panda's eye.
"Thank you all for understanding." said Po, wiping away the tear as he smiled at everyone in front of him.
The meeting over, the villagers began separating as they went back to their homes to prepare for another day.
However, there was one person near the back of the crowd that hadn't moved an inch, and when Po managed to catch sight of them, he realized that he didn't recognize who it was, at least at first.
After taking a closer look, Po could see that the figure looked eerily familiar, with his green vest and straw hat, but he couldn't quite place who it was.
"Who is that guy?"