A/N: Welcome to Forgotten Hope, this fic is on current update and previous chapters may be re-edited to improve grammar, details, and etc.

Have a good reading.

After the defeat of Lord Shen at Gongmen City, and a rather unexpected conflict involving a secret criminal band of Komodo Dragons, Po and his friends, the Furious Five along with Master Shifu, Master Ox and Master Croc remained at the town to celebrate the victory against Lord Shen.

They were all together at a local restaurant having a good rest and waiting to eat anything that was available. It was expected that Po would do something for everyone with the help of the restaurant's chief, but Po said he wasn't on the mood for and went to sit along with his friends.

It was clear that the recent events involving Lord Shen were still fresh at the panda's mind and disturbing him a bit on the inside.

Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, Po and Crane were all sitting on the same table while Master Shifu was on another one With Master Croc along with Master Ox. Master Shifu has been discussing some serious subjects and, thankfully, spared his students of a rather boring conversation.

"I'm glad everything is finally over, those damn lizards almost made me lose my cool, it's funny how Shen or any of his wolves never took notice of a criminal gang working in the city," Mantis said sounding tired.

"True to that. Perhaps the peacock was too busy watching over his own to care about anything else," Crane said while admiring the structures around them, he was fascinated by the cultural diversity that Gongmen possessed.

"So, Po..."Monkey said all of sudden. "...how did you do that? I mean, that was some crazy movements out there!"

"Did what?" The panda replied while blinking at confusion.

"Oh, well. Probably I mean about those cannon ball dodges you made! That was truly...how you say it? Awesome!" The simian said rather ironically.

"Yeah!" Agreed Mantis. "That was something amazing! I would like to do that too."

Po smiled softly at his friend's admiration for his techniques. The only problem is that to learn those moves wasn't a matter of training but of...how Master Shifu would call it? Inner peace! Something that they would need to achieve by themselves.

"I'll admit that I'm very curious about it," Said Crane looking directly at the panda. "How did you manage it Po?"

"Well...I...don't know...I...was in peace...you know...my...inner peace...and things just happened. I can't explain exactly how that happened, but...it was awesome!" The panda said with great enthusiasm.

Crane seemed surprised and, for some reason, somewhat disappointed. He forced a smile just to prevent the panda from noticing something strange.

"Really? That's great. I guess we all should start looking for our inner peace. I'm glad you found yours. Too bad for Shen," Crane said somewhat morbidly.

"Shen got what he deserved," Said Tigress coldly. Normally nobody would reply for her hardcore speeches but it appeared to be that Master Crane was in a mood for talking on that day, something really rare.

"You think so? You really think that someone deserves to die the way he did?" Crane asked looking at the female tiger sitting on the other side of the table right in front of the avian.

The avian tried to keep his expression blank, but he couldn't deny that he was feeling bothered with the way Tigress said that. She stopped eating and raised her head up giving to Crane a threatening glare.

"You know about the things he did, the kind of person he choose to be. I seriously don't have to waste my time explaining to you why since it's obvious. You're starting to have foolish doubts Crane. I suggest to you to change the way you're thinking over such things."

"I'm not saying that what he did was right or not. I'm just saying that-" Crane tried to defend himself but Tigress didn't gave him a chance to do so.

"What?! That he should have been take to justice? Locked on a cell for the rest of his damned life? Of course not! His punishment was death, he knew that it would lead him to such, what's the matter with you? Can't you see the logic on things anymore?" Tigress stabbed those words at the avian with coldness, but Crane didn't held back. A big mistake.

"I'm sorry if I'm getting uneasy at the fact that we usually kill our enemies every time we face them, it was said that we are heroes, but I don't see nothing much heroic on killing, nothing really honorable."

That last word hit a soft spot on Tigress.

"What do you know about honor bird? If the best you could do just few years ago was to mope the floor with a broomstick?" She nearly raged at him.

Everyone just kept silent the whole time not daring to move since they were taken aback by the abrupt arguing and didn't blink for a moment. Tigress's last words just raised an awkward and embarrassing silence over were the only presents were the Five and Po since Master Shifu, Ox and Croc left just few moments ago. Everyone gazed from Tigress to Crane to see what his reaction to that would be.

Tigress was staring menacingly at the avian master that didn't move, his head was pointed towards the ground and his hat was covering his eyes and nobody knew what he was thinking or what would he would do now.

Slowly Crane took a step back and looked directly at Tigress. It was the first time ever that Po saw so much hate and disgust on the avian's expression, he had to admit that the difference was scaring to say at least.

"At least I didn't have to kill nobody to clean things up," He said melancholically as he turned around to leave. Tigress moved forward but she was stop quickly by Monkey and Viper.

"Calm down! It's not the time or place for this," Said Viper on an urgent tone.

"Yeah, Viper is correct. The last thing you want it's to Master Shifu heard about that you and Crane were fighting in public," Supported Monkey.

Tigress was very angry with Crane, but Monkey and Viper had a good point. She took her seat and tried to calm down a little.

"I don't understand..." Mantis talked with Tigress for the first time after several minutes of silence. "You and Crane get along so well, sometimes he gets along with you better than Viper, and why you acted so harshly?"

"I didn't act harshly! He started to say things that shouldn't go across his mind ever," Retorted Tigress undignified.

"Oh, you didn't? And perhaps saying things like 'bird' to Crane doesn't sound mean at all," Monkey mocked but keeping his face serious. Tigress growled at him and the simian quickly shut it.

"I understand Tigress," Said Po finally letting the words coming out of him. "But Crane wasn't trying to imply anything...and what's the matter if he feels bad for people who died no matter who they were? Crane was just being...Crane. He's the one who prefer talking instead of fighting, isn't he?

Tigress stared silently at the panda with his words floating inside her ears. Po was right, Crane just acted the way he is and she didn't realize that before. But of all the other times she couldn't notice this one? What made her act so much aggressively?

Perhaps the recent events with Lord Shen still were banging inside of her.

Now Crane was mad with the female tiger, the avian never felt anger of Tigress. Mantis was right about Crane getting along with her better than the rest of them. Tigress would need to find a way to fix things.

The waterfowl left the establishment without looking back, his recent distress making him careless about where he was going. People at the street would immediately stop and comment quietly among themselves after the avian master passed by.

"Isn't he one of the kung fu masters that was along with the Dragon Warrior?" Asked a random goose.

"Yeah, he must be part of that furious something, whatever they are."

'Typical' Crane though with himself as he kept walking across the streets.

It did not surprised Crane that event after the incident with the Komodo Dragons and especially with Lord Shen people would still not be aware of who the Furious Five really were. All because Po had the biggest spotlight over him during the occasions, being the great responsible for taking down Lord Shen and his wolf army, but still he didn't made that much about the Komodo incident, but people believed firmly that Po alone defeated them all.

Not that Crane would feel bothered much by it, but he felt rather unjustified that all his efforts to help his friends went simply ignored or been poorly judged. Po didn't do all of it alone, but true to be told nobody seemed to care much about what the Five did.

Crane caught himself thinking again about how they were defeated at that night at the factory, right after Po was shot. It shocked him deeply, but that wasn't enough for him to stop fighting and not trying to take down the factory along with the maniac peacock. True they had the numbers against them, but they defeated much bigger numbers before, how come did they simply lost to a bunch of wolves with no kung fu knowledge at all?

It took the waterfowl a lot of effort to find a proper answer for this. His teammates felt much more than he anticipated. Especially Tigress. Crane would never forget her expression after what happened with Po that night.

*Flashback*

With Tigress out of action being totally immobilized by the shock, of what Po's supposed death might have cause, it resulted on the rest of the Five to be totally suppressed by the increasing number of enemies around them.

Crane had barely any room to fly due the several wooden structures. Monkey was quickly overwhelmed by wolves jumping over him, the simian was easily immobilized. Mantis and Viper were thin and small, but they have no route of escape plus the fact they were still shaken by what happened with the panda. Seeing that his friends were being overrun Crane tried to fly high and escape, that was when he was cornered by the peacock.

"Oh, it seems someone is not brave enough for this fight," Shen said with mockery and a rather sinister smile.

Crane tried to gather all his hate towards the peacock. He took notice he's been surrounded by several wolves and there was nothing he could do to rescue the rest of the Five.

"This isn't over Shen, you won't gain anything with this," Crane said rather bravely but in vain. Shen laughed at his words.

"By the contrary, now everything will be mine, now that there's no stupid panda and his friends to stop me. You and your kung fu finally lost, now you can choose your own fate," Shen came closer raising his spear towards the waterfowl dangerously close. "You can surrender now and share the fate of your friends or...you can try to fight and die here,"

Crane hesitated. He could try escaping, but a single mistake would cost his own life. Surrender didn't felt very honorable, and by sharing his friends fate surely would mean he would be executed along all the rest.

"Whatever,"

Crane kicked Shen's spear on the blink of an eye right before kick-backing the nearby wolves. It took him a second to get airborne. All the wolves that were carrying arrows immediately start shooting at the avian. It was rather unnecessary to say how ineffective that proved to be. Shen slowly walked across the platform while contemplating the waterfowl struggling to not get pierced by dozens of arrows.

Crane did not noticed but those arrows had no direct intent of killing him, but dragging him down slowly.

As such happened Shen jumped down to the lower levels landing softly at the ground.

"Rather brave of your part waterfowl, but foolish. You should know you can't win, besides...you're too close from the ground," As Shen said that he unleashed one of his knifes towards the distracted Crane, it scratched the avian's shoulder with great effectiveness.

Crane yelled at pain before collapsing towards the floor with a loud thump. Before the waterfowl could get up Shen had his spear pointing over his chest.

"Now enough wasting my time waterfowl, I have too much to do."

"Why you're doing this Shen?" Crane asked with a defeated tone while sustaining his injured shoulder.

"Why?!As if someone like you deserved to know," Shen glanced over his wolves with authority. "Take him with the others, and make sure they're well chained this time."

*End flashback*

Crane was walking down through a small street of Gongmen City that would lead straight to the outskirts of the city, lost in thoughts about his discussion with Tigress he wasn't paying attention to where he was directing himself to.

The waterfowl walked to the outskirts of Gongmen, passing by the shore were a small beach was located. It was a beautiful place not far away from town, where a river that goes into the forest made connection with the sea. The avian entered silently into the dense forest, barely feeling that his feet were no longer over hard soil but pure grass, he finally took notice of where he was after hitting hard his head on a low branch. The avian moaned in pain caressing his forehead with his left talon(or feet). Crane glanced around, he was very alone and it would be better this way, he wasn't on the mood to talk with anyone.

He kept walking deep inside the forest that was very natural like any other; a bit dark, cold, full of strange noises. And some of those noises were quite spooky, especially that strange moaning.

Moaning?

Crane shifted his head one side to other as he started to get the feeling that he wasn't alone so much as he though. The bird walked around still hearing the moaning, he had no idea from where it could be coming from.

Suddenly he fell inside a small river covered by several leafs on the edges that made for him difficult to see what they would be hiding and now he was completely wet.

"Argh! That's just great," Crane complained with himself while trying to dry off some of the water on his feathers, it didn't take long for him to notice that several feathers had become light red, he inspected carefully and realized that the water had blood in it.

Crane glanced nervously through the woods trying to see anything, but it was hard to see more than four meters away. Walking around this place wasn't a good idea after all.

"As if this place didn't felt creepy enough,"

He followed the trail of blood but keeping his eyes raised all the time, the more he kept following the blood louder the strange moaning was becoming.

"Ok...I guess it's nothing. Maybe it's the wind...and maybe this river has something weird on it," Said Crane more to himself trying to relax his nerves, but the true is that he was freaking out slowly.

He ended walking for more seven minutes until he reached a small opening in the woods, that's when he saw a terrifying sight.

There was a creature of some sort crouched next to the river over some leaves, pieces of wood, and what seemed mud. There was blood all over, Crane could see several deep wounds and burn marks on it. All of sudden the creature raised his head.

Crane almost jumped few feet away. If he have not seen that face before he would have no idea that Lord Shen was right in front of him.

The peacock was alive somehow, but his appearance being considerably ruined. You could barely see any white feathers and the clothes were almost entirely scratched, his tail feathers were cut, smashed, or burned, his chest had a small piece of wood craved on it.

Luckily it didn't hit any vital organs, his legs were on strange angles, the neck was almost twisted, and his head was full of bruises, one of his eyes still kept the same except that one was closed and had a deep purple color over the orbit.

The good eye was staring towards the other avian, Shen barely reacted to Crane's presence, he just stared.

A sudden sense of uneasy and panic was growing inside of the waterfowl, this situation was too bizarre to be real. He froze while watching over the disfigured form agonizing few feet away.

Crane had no idea of what to do. Should he kill Shen? Spare him of his pain? Then that would go totally against what he said earlier on the discussion with Tigress, but this was so much different.

'Oh, no! What do I do?!What do I do?!' Though Crane in near panic.

Crane approached slowly of Shen until he was just few centimeters away. Shen was still looking at him without reaction.

"Ple...l...me..." Shen's voice was incredibly weak but Crane could understand it anyway.

"Just..oh my..don't move! I'll try to help you, ok?" Said Crane.'Did I just said that?' He knew that he would get himself into big trouble, but he couldn't let Shen die slowly in front of him and even less he wouldn't kill the peacock.

Luckily Crane still had his small bag with some of his things on it, good for him that Mantis let his 'medicine' stuff in it aswell.

"Here...take this...it will stop most of the pain," Offered Crane showing it to Shen by holding it on his right wing, it didn't took long to the avian master to remind himself that Shen could barely speak, much less grab things. 'Urgh, I'm such an idiot'

Crane applied the 'medicine' directly to Shen by simply shoving it into his throat without much ceremony, at which the peacock couldn't do anything to protest and nearly choke.

Crane very carefully helped the peacock to lay down over some leafes, the Lord didn't show any kind of reaction to Crane. He was too weak and he was preserving his strength to breath and keep conscious.

There was a small piece of wood that gave Crane a lot of trouble to remove, once he was sure he had enough to stop Shen from bleeding to death he finally removed it from his chest. Sealing the wound took much longer than he would've liked.

Shen's legs were in awful shape, but luckily no exposed fractures. The peacock protested vehemently as the waterfowl adjusted them and immobilized using natural resources provided by the forest.

'At least I'm assured of my healing skills' "Master Shifu is going to kill me, or worse," 'Rather him than Tigress to be honest'

Master Crane was now in a hopeless situation. He was helping to keep Lord Shen alive, but soon he would have to go back to the city, if he didn't return the Five and Po would start looking for him and he would be on big trouble.

If they find Shen with him alive there was no doubt that the lord would be killed at the same very moment by Tigress, or he would be taken away to face justice and surely facing execution.

But what to do then? He couldn't keep taking care of the peacock. If he just had someone he could really trust...

It was when the avian realized that he has someone of trust. Didn't she always have a strong confidence on him since that day many years ago? Who else in this world to show the kindness that no one would had for him before?

Mei Ling has been there for him many times, and Crane knew deep inside that she would not hesitate to come for his aid, no matter how difficult it could be she would help him again. Crane pondered over the possibility that she probably didn't hear about Lord Shen before.

Hopefully.

Now how to contact Mei Ling and leave Shen with her? Unless Crane ask her to come to Gongmen City. Yunnán wasn't very far from Gongmen.

It was worth a try after all, if he could count on the mountain cat's agility to get here, a voyage she could easily do in a couple of hours. Crane would have to find a way to keep treating Shen without nobody else noticing. That was going to be hard.

Crane spent more few minutes along with peacock that, apparently, was still too bad for any visible reaction and he was solely focusing on breathing and trying not to sleep. Crane wished he could help more and he would if he had a better place to be for it.

It would be getting dark soon and staying in the forest at night was too dangerous. Crane knew that someone would be looking for him shortly.

Meanwhile...

"Hey guys, where's Crane?" Asked Po few hours later after he and the rest of the Five had left the restaurant. Ever since the discussion that Tigress had with Crane things had been quite awkward for the rest of the day.

"I don't know. Didn't you look for him?" Replied Mantis with slight concern.

Tigress pretended she didn't heard anything and kept minding her own. Viper stared at the panda distractedly, she wasn't much focused on the question since she had a lot of other things in mind at the moment. The only ones that gave him attention to the matter were Monkey and Mantis.

"Yes, I did! I can't find him!" Said the panda with some urgency on his voice. "What if he got himself into trouble? We should look for him!" Unfortunatelythe others didn't saw a reason to worry at all.

"Don't mind about it Po," Said Monkey." Crane is a grow up man, he can take care of himself. If there's something that he's good at is staying out of trouble, and after we settle everything that was wrong here what kind of trouble he could get into anyway?