A/N: Hi there! Thank you for picking my story to read!
This is my very, VERY first fanfic, so please try not to burn me to badly. ^^'
R&R
Before The Past Repeats
Chapter One
Prologue:
It was raining, harder than it had for many years in the village.
All of the citizens had locked their doors and windows, sitting around the fire with their families or crawling into bed to dream of the sunshine tomorrow would hopefully bring.
All except for one.
Moving from alley to alley, a small, lone figure runs; soaked to the bone with rain and out of breath from running.
Its paws were sore, and its eyelids felt like lead, but still it runs until it comes to a dead end.
Pausing to get its breath back, one of its ears twitches at something in the alley behind it: the pounding of feet and the panting of something much larger than itself.
Panicking, the little figure quickly dives into a pile of crates on the side of the dead end, crawling inside of one of them, and holds its breath.
The footsteps stop at the entrance to the alleyway before walking further in.
The little one cowers in the crate as the footsteps come closer.
Step by step the figure walks further into the alley, its glowing eyes trying to pierce through the rain, its nose sniffing at the air; like a hunter stalking its prey.
Lightning arches across the sky as the hunter stops right in front of the pile of crates, sniffing, and dropping down to all fours.
The hidden figure closes its eyes and prays silently to any god who would listen.
Raising a paw, the hunter reaches towards the crate and-
BONG-BONG-BONG-BONG!
"The Village is under attack! The Village is under attack!"
The hunter flinches and retracts its hand.
"The Village is under attack! Assemble the guards!"
The houses all around the alleyway begin to light up as screams of terror are heard from the south side of the village.
The hunter looks at the crates, eyes ablaze with fury and a growl rippling in its throat before turning and dashing through the backstreets of the village once more, avoiding the awakened citizens.
The little figure looks out as the hunter leaves, its heart pounding in its chest before it curls up once again within the crate and passes out from exhaustion.
The Jade Palace of the Valley of Peace the following day
Due to the storm, the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior were forced to continue their training inside the Palace.
Or at least, that's what they were supposed to be doing.
The sounds of grunting and the pounding of wood could be heard throughout the Palace, but it came, not from the Training Hall, but from the kitchen.
"Come on Po, you can do it!" Viper calls.
"A dozen cookies says he can't," says Monkey.
"You're on!" responds Crane.
Po grunts and pants, his facial fur drenched from exertion. Huffing and puffing he thinks, 'Come on Po, you got this, you got this! You-DON'T GOT THIS!'
With a yelp, Po finds himself flipping through the air and landing in yesterdays dirty dishes as his friends look on and try not to laugh.
"Told you!"
"Oh shut up Monkey." Crane pouts.
"You're just upset because you owe me a dozen cookies. Please make sure they're almond ones, they're the best!" Monkey laughs as he balances on his tail.
Ignoring the two masters as they quarreled, Tigress and Viper walk over to Po's side as he starts to wake up.
Concern in her eyes, Tigress asks, "Po? Are you okay?" as she helps him to sit up.
Holding his head and moaning Po replies, "Did I win?" He tries to look at Viper and Tigress but immediately closes his eyes, as they seemed to sway and spin.
Viper, while smiling, says, "No, Mantis beat you at arm wrestling….again."
Standing up, Tigress turns to Mantis, who is standing on the table looking pleased with himself, and growls, "Did you have to beat him that hard?"
Mantis raises his….thingies in defense and states, "I tried to go easy on him."
Crane raises an eyebrow, "By throwing him across the room?"
"I said 'tried to' not 'succeeded to'." Mantis shrugs.
Po stands up (the room had decided to stop spinning), "Guys calm down, it's totally fine. No harm done," he claimed as he took his seat at the table again. "So-," a determined look on his face, "-give me one more chance Mantis! This time, you'll feel the true awesomeness that is the Dragon Warrior!"
A voice from the doorway spoke, "Oh, I seriously doubt that."
Jumping up with a yell from the table, the Furious Five and Dragon Warrior turn to find their master, Shifu, smiling at them in a way that said, 'I may look calm, but you're about to find out that I am not.' In a flash, all of the masters were bowing to him, none daring to look Shifu in the eye.
"Well, my students, are we enjoying our time inside today?" Shifu asked them smirking. "Isn't nice to be out of the cold, hard wind and rain?"
The students remained quiet, knowing that voicing the wrong answer would make matters ten times worse than they already were.
Shifu continued with the same innocent look on his face, "What's wrong? No comments? No observations? You do know that it is raining don't you?"
Po, feeling the pressure of his master's stare, finally broke his silence, "Yes, Master Shifu, but-OW!" He was cut off by Tigress smacking him with her tail…hard!
"Ohhhh, so one of you does know that it is raining. That's good. But, since the rest of you don't, then it is a good thing that I have just received a new mission for you." Shifu's face turns hard, "While the six of you have been mucking about, a village due west of us has been attacked and taken over by bandits. According to the few citizens who managed to escape, the bandits attacked late last night during the storm and have locked everybody up inside their own homes. You are to go there immediately and see to it that all is made well. Understand?"
The students bowed again, "Yes Master."
Shifu points to the door, "Move out!" As one, the six warriors run out the door. As an after thought, Shifu yells after them, "AND NO SNACK STOPS!" He smiles as Po goes 'Ahhhhhhh' and retires to his room to meditate.
Hours later, after traveling non-stop since they left the Jade Palace, the Furious Five plus Po find themselves standing on a hill overlooking the distressed village. The rain had finally calm down from a torrent of water to little more than a drizzle, and the Village could be seen rather clearly…
Along with the crocodile bandits who were roaming the streets of the town.
Po looks to the Five, cracking his knuckles as he asks, "So how do you guys want to do this? I am up for anything except-"
"Stealth." Tigress interrupted.
Throwing his head back and groaning, Po retorts, "Tigress, we've talked about my stealth mode; namely that I DON'T HAVE ONE-!"
Viper winds herself around Po's mouth to keep him from making any more noise as Tigress continues.
"I realize this Po…..which is why you are not going to be sneaking."
Underneath Viper's coils, Po could be heard going 'Huh?'
Eyes aglow, Tigress smiles, "You're going to be the distraction." Turning to the others she says, "Monkey, head to the north side of the village, Mantis the south, Viper you cover the west. I will handle this side. Crane, I want you to fly overhead. Po," she turns back to him, "Go into the center of town and on Crane's signal," she smirks, "Make them feel the thunder."
Po nods his head vigorously, nearly knocking Viper off, and gives two thumbs up.
"While Po draws the bandits' attention to the center of town we will attack them from behind, and take them down quickly before they think to use any of the villagers as hostages." Looking around at her friends, "Everyone understand the plan?"
Five heads nod in agreement.
"Then let's move." With that, they all silently move through the night to their positions and, wait for the signal.
'What is taking Po so long?' Tigress thought irritably. She was positioned right beside one of the eastern most houses, awaiting the signal to move. Just a few houses away from her were two croc bandits, lounging about and not paying attention to anything around them,
'I know he's not the fastest guy around, but it's been over half an hour! Surely even he would be ready by-' Her thought was interrupted by Crane's call heard somewhere overhead. Not a second later there was a loud yell and an even louder impact that Tigress could feel even from where she was.
"INTRUDER! INTRUDER!"
Shocked into alertness, the two bandits jerk towards the booms location, and Tigress chose that moment to strike.
Faster than the lightning above her, she dashes towards them, taking them both out with a perfect spilt kick.
'I wish Po could have seen that.' Tigress thinks with a smile, before shaking her head and refocusing on the mission.
She ran through the village on all fours, taking down every bandit she saw, hearing the cries of unseen bandits no doubt being taken down by the others.
As she neared the center of town, Tigress caught a glimpse of something running across the rooftops. Without a second of hesitation, she jumps off the wall and onto the roof, just in time to see the figure leap down into an alleyway.
'Trying to escape, huh? Not a chance!' With a grin, Tigress gives chase down into the alley.
The bandit, realizing he's being chased, attempts to lose the master by going down alley after alley, but to no avail.
Sure enough, Tigress finally corners the bandit in a dead end.
Growling she says, "Give up now and maybe I won't break your legs!"
Unsheathing the axe off of his back, the crocodile attempts to sound tough but fails miserably, his axe shaking terribly as he stammers, "Ba-back off c-cat, i-if you know wh-what's good for y-ya."
The bandit backs up as Tigress moves towards him, until he trips and falls over a pile of crates.
Tigress was about to pounce on him when she heard a cry from the crates.
Obviously, the bandit had heard it as well as he started to dig through the pile of crates. Before Tigress could make another move, the croc stood up with his prize in his fist; a young tiger cub, and a girl at that.
Gaining a wicked glint in his eye, the croc turn back to Tigress, cub still in hand. Pointing his axe at her, he says, "Well, well, well cat! Looks like I got myself a little hostage! Ha ha ha! What do'ya think of that!"
Tigress growls and crouches down to pounce, but the bandit waves his axe at her like a teacher would to an unruly student.
"Ah ah ah! I wouldn't do that if I were you! Unless of course-" he swings his axe up to the cubs neck, "-you want me to give the kitty cat a nice little shave. Huh? Do you want that?" He asks with a sneer.
Tigress growls even louder than before, but stands up from her crouch nonetheless.
Laughing loudly, the croc continues, "Good girl… Now listen up! I'm gonna walk out of this village and you're not going to stop me," the blade of the axe moves closer to the cub's throat, "Or the girl gets it!" That said, the bandit begins to slowly move to the alley entrance.
Teeth bared and claws digging into the palm of her hands, Tigress races to think of a way to get the croc without hurting the child.
'Damn, damn, damn! This croc's going to pay when I get my claws into him…how in the world am I going to get that girl away from him? I'll need a distraction…'
The question had barely crossed her mind when the cub, letting out a tiny growl, twisted around in her captors grasp and latched onto his arm with her fangs and claws.
Yowling in pain, the croc raises his axe into the air, with every intention of bringing it down onto the poor cub's head; however as he did, he make one fatal mistake;
He took his eyes off a member of the Furious Five.
With a roar rippling in her throat, Tigress pounces on the bandit, seizing his axe with one hand and the cub with the other. Pulling the little tiger off of his arm, the enraged master leaps into the air and delivers a sound side kick straight to his head, followed by one to his gut.
The bandit flies through the air until the wall at the end of the alley stops him, leaving a crocodile sized dent in the stone.
'Well, that was anti-climatic,' Tigress thinks to herself sighing, 'Oh well, so long as the cub is-OW!'
While Tigress had been thinking, the cub in question, which she had been holding in the crook of her arm, began to thrash about with her tiny claws. Startled, Tigress dropped the child, who quickly ran back to her crate and crawled inside.
Curious, Tigress walks over and crouches down to see inside the wooden box. She finds the cub, scrunched up into as small a ball as possible, panting, and glaring at her with red glowing eyes.
'That's weird…most children are excited to just see me, let alone after I just saved them. This one looks…scared.'
She reaches inside to box, only to have the cub scoot even further towards the back and growl at her hand.
Tigress flinches, but reaches back towards the girl anyway. Just as she is about to touch her, the child bites her hand with her teeth, growling all the while.
Grimacing slightly, Tigress nonetheless pulls the still attached cub out of her box like a fish on a hook. Realizing what was happening, the girl lets go and tries to scramble back into her box, but Tigress catches her before she does. With both hands on her shoulders, Tigress forces the small cub to stand and look at her.
Speaking calmly she says to the still struggling cub, "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, calm down."
Speaking for the first time the girl cries, "LET GO OF ME! I'M NOT GOING BACK TO THEM, YOU CAN"T MAKE ME!" The cub thrashed around, but not a wildly as before, she seemed to be quickly tiring herself out, which didn't really surprise Tigress not that she got a good look at the cub. She was a South China Tiger like herself, but her clothes were worn paper thin and torn in several places, her fur was matted and dingy, and she looked like she hadn't eaten in weeks.
Bringing her face level with the cub's, Tigress asks, "Go back to who? Where are your parents little one?" In answer, the cub simply growled and fought Tigress even more weakly than before.
'This isn't good. What should I do?' She asks herself.
While debating, Tigress barely noticed as the young tiger stops fighting her and becomes still. Focusing on the cub, she is forced to catch the girl as she falls forward into her arms. Flipping her around, Tigress sees that she's passed out and is breathing raggedly. Feeling her forehead, Tigress realizes that the girl has a fever.
Panicking slightly she thinks, 'Oh no! What am I going to do!"
"Not going back..." Tigress hears the girl quietly mumble. As she looks into the cubs sleeping face, something within her clicks and she suddenly knows exactly what she was going to do.
Tigress stands up, with the child cradled in her arms like a baby, and sprints as fast as she could on two legs towards the center of the village and the rest of her friends.
A/N: Da da da! There's the first chapter!
Thank you for reading and please R&R!