Curse or Gift?
Summary: She was told the stories of her power by her mother at night, dismissing them when they came to life in her dreams. Now, they're an awful reality—and her life is dependent on them.
Characters/Pairings: Viper centric. Mo/Vi, one-sided Ti/Po and Crane/Vi if you squint. Hinted Po/Vi. Hinted as in, it's pretty blatant towards the end.
Genre: What the heck to I call this? It's like...Angst/Humor/Romance/Hurt/Comfort/Friendship.
Warnings: You know, if you're looking for non-stop Ti/Po author, I'm really not your girl. I like variation. and change. And nonboringness; please, try to tell me with a straight face that every Ti/Po cliche hasn't been done. You can't. Cuz you'd be lying. :/ Shipping isn't the most important thing of this story. That's the angst (teehee fun word)
A/N: The best explanation I can give is that I'm slowly becoming more and more abstract. Expect a tale about a one-legged chicken named Maurice to follow this. Hey look! I'm trying a new tense! I must have had an epiphany.
Angst, angst for everyone.
The name for her kind is simple, to the point, and not at all clever. Seers, they're called, because they See. Supposedly, there are Listeners as well, but that term is often traded for 'mad' and so she ignores their existence, or lack of it.
Seers are not born Seeing. That comes much later. All they can do in the beginning is see, not See. For her, learning to See took much longer then normal, for her gift/curse was kept a secret.
Gift because she has saved lives with the power so many times. She's seen things mere seconds before they happen, able to stop it from being and actuality.
Curse because she can't control it. It's sporadic and random and let's her down often.
Curse because it scares people away. Potential allies, usually. She's decided to tell only strangers, those that haven't known her for too long. It's safer for her this way. Nobody would believe a refugee that had carried a moment's worth of conversation with her. Everybody would believe her closest friends.
Curse because it keeps her isolated. Once upon a time, she was a child. As all children do, she grew up, but far faster then necessary. That tended to happen if the dreams of a toddler were ridden with war and blood and things much, much worse.
Gift because it gives her purpose. She has something to live for, hiding and sheltering this horrible, beautiful secret.
When she first realizes her power, the one straight out of a bedtime story, she's thirteen and shopping. A basket of food is balanced precariously on her back. She hums as she slithers back home, passes an alley and sees a glimpse of a beating. She turns away, and just as she does, a bright flash nearly blinds her. The basket drops off her back as she curls in pain, forced to watch the sight of the pig being beaten, a knife driven through his heart and left to be found in the morning. It's a dream, she says, a fantasy. Not real. She hurries from the spot as quickly as possible.
The next morning, news of the pig's death has spread like wildfire.
Viper slinks off quietly and wretches for hours after hearing the gory details of his death, involving a knife sticking straight out of his chest. It's a coincidence, she tells herself. Happened by chance.
-x-x-x-
The second time it happens so suddenly, she knows what it is and takes action. Right before her father can bring the golden goblet up to his lips, she lunges forward and knocks it from his hand. The burning white flash had revealed that, had the liquid been ingested by her father, he would keel over, dead in seconds.
"It's poisoned!" she insists, "Have it checked if you don't believe me!"
He takes her word for it. Too stunned to fight back, the wolf that tried to feed him the evil drink is carried away, and Viper is congratulated for her heroism.
"Thank the gods I have you," Father gushes and kisses her head. She's shaking and breathing hard, and accepts his praise with a tentative smile.
Gift, she thinks later as she contemplates it in bed.
-x-x-
(Gift) The third time she sees it coming. A bandit charges toward Monkey, swinging a hammer with all his might. He focuses on him, and is lured to a spot where a trap is rigged.
"Monkey!" she cries, forcing him to turn his head. He's confused, but the knives he triggered with the tripwire miss his head by a millimeter.
Later, he says he owes her his life. She doesn't want him to owe her anything. She smiles at him still, and it grows wider when he smiles back.
-x-x-
Oogway must have known about it. He told all his students the story of the Seers and Listeners, how they had once been abundant, and always found a way to look at her when doing so. It was a strange, piercing look. He was looking at much more then her face, she knew.
"Master Oogway," she dares to ask during a lesson, "do you think…that…maybe, Seers still…exist?"
He continues the kata he's teaching before answering, "My dear, I'm quite positive they're closer then we think."
His words send a cold chill through her body. She nods and knows that she has an ally.
-x-x-
When the Oogway announces his readiness to choose the Dragon Warrior, she shuts her eyes and wills the power to strike. She needs to know if it's Tigress, because she's a good friend, because Tigress is stressing over it, because Oogway is watching her, like he expects her to know.
The flash comes and passes; by the time the knowledge is nearly bursting off her tongue, the smoking panda has already hit the stone hard. She avoids looking at Tigress.
If only she'd known sooner, she thinks. If only.
-x-x-
Nothing matters other then the intense urge she has to curse her tongue to pieces. Nothing matters other then the fact that it's night and a romantic setting and really, it's just the two of them, as in they are alone; no one to interfere…
She gurgles.
He laughs.
"Po, you're not helping," she grumbles, feeling her heart skip a beat.
"Sorry," he says and doesn't mean. Far more relaxed then she, he leans on the Peach Tree and sighs. "Do I really make you that nervous?" And he has the audacity to smile as he asks, lips curled perfectly, eyebrows raised at a slight incline, suggestive written all over her face.
Viper gives him her best glare, the one she saves for Mantis on a bad day. "I'd tell you….but then I'd have to kill you."
He snorts, "You've been hanging around Tigress too long."
She's thankful. A hot, tugging feeling pulls at her brain, and she swallows and wills it away. Nothing is going to ruin the moment—especially not a Flash. "And you're letting Mantis get to you," she shoots back.
Po goes utterly silent. When he speaks his voice is soft and timid, almost, and by the way he looks away she guesses his face is betraying more then just shyness; "Mantis isn't the only one that teases us, you know. Even my dad is jumping on the bandwagon…"
She gurgles. Then laughs.
He hesitates before joining in.
-x-x-
Gift because she can always hope for the best. The Flashes are more willing to bend to her summoning now. Viper confides in the only person she thinks will understand.
The stocky avian proves her right. More so then she initially thought. "…huh," he says after pondering her words. "Seers and Listeners…you think they exist?"
Careful to dodge a direct answer she offers, "Oogway says they're closer then we think. If he believes in them, they're probably out there."
Crane's head bobs up and down in agreement. He seems tense. She doesn't pick up on why, even after she asks what's wrong and he sidesteps the question.
"Just…what if…there were more then just those two groups?" His voice trembles and he doesn't look at her. He has no way of elaborating though, so he sighs and they lapse into a thoughtful silence.
-x-x-
Curse because she grieves before most people know what she's grieving over. Some things are seen because they are meant to happen.
She's outside when a flash so violent knocks her over. She's lost in it longer then normal; by the time it let her go, it's too late. Her eyes are wide and she can't form complete sentences, but she's hopeful that Shifu understood Tai Lung and escape among her desultory explanation. Hopefully, the widening of his eyes means that he heard and he's willing to prepare.
He may have to fight his own son again. Hopefully, it won't come to that.
-x-x-
Gift because it makes her mysterious, and therefore idolized. She gives her insect comrade a small grin that she's sure he doesn't understand.
"I see things. In the future," she tells him, and his jaw drops. "Ever since I was a child."
"Liar," Mantis doubts, eyeing her wearily. "You made that up just to make my story look lame."
"You didn't need me to do that," she says smugly. They slip into comfortable banter, leaving her confession forgotten. She wishes she was lying. There's no use in letting Mantis know she's telling the complete truth.
-x-x-
Curse because, guess what?, she's hanging off a boat like some kind of burned flag. Her head hangs low and brushes Monkey's shoulder, and all he can do is nudge her for comfort. Chains are literally all over her, preventing any movement.
"What was that?" Mantis asks, quite amiable for someone who's about to die.
"I said I'm going to kill him," she replies sharply. "Shen. If we get down from here, he's mine, okay?"
There's a hard edge to her voice. Tigress, whose head is hung low, smirks and looks up. "I may have to fight you for that honor, Viper," she says weakly, slowly, then her head falls again and she's silent.
Tigress does NOTHING weakly. This is why Shen is hers; that, and because he killed Po. She Saw the canon go off seconds before it actually did, and what good was that? Tigress' name was already bubbling out of her throat, "save him" following close behind…but it is too late.
A panda-shaped hole is the only thing that could be seen after the brightly-colored smoke clears. Tears fill her eyes, and anger her heart.
What hurts the most is that she had to witness it twice.
-x-x-
Gift because she is submerged underwater, ready to stop trying, then a weak flash brings the image of him twisting and twirling and redirecting cannonballs. She wiggles to the surface just in time to see him launch the final cannonball, see it blow Shen to pieces, and a victorious "YES!" explodes off her lips before she can stop it.
Not that she wants to.
She's first in line for panda hugs later, because, well, he is why she is still breathing, right? No will to live without him. And…maybe…there's a bit more that she's not as willing to admit.
-x-x-
Curse because she doesn't always know what she's Seeing.
Curse because she still couldn't save him.
Curse. Curse. Curse. Curse because he's gone.
"This is my fault," she says quietly. Tigress hears her, and it seems her interest as been caught, for she doesn't shush the serpent. "I am supposed to See things like this before it happens!"
Then Tigress tells her to stop saying nonsense. "There's no way you could have protected this," she chides. "Stop beating yourself over nothing."
Which is a load of bull because just yesterday, Tigress was doing the exact same thing. There own brains taunt them constantly; what if you were faster? What if you had told him before he died, you coward?
The girls sigh in unison. Tigress' hand flies up and rests back in her lap in the blink of an eye, and though she denies it, the tear had actually managed to leave her eye before she brushed it away.
Viper shuts her eyes and hopes for a Vision. Something to see; anything, as long as it brings hope.
Her vision flashes white.
Her eyes fly open. Tears flow instantly, and her mouth gapes. Tigress is watching her curiously, then jerks back when Viper announces, "That panda isn't Po!"
Later they discover she is right. And later, she finds the panda—cold, hungry, and smiling in a cave far, far away. "Just what do you think you're doing, Po Ping? Sending a look alike to scare us all like that?"
He smiles at her as she unties the ropes and chains bounding him to the wall. "Technically, he tried to kill me and take my place. I was just hoping you'd find me here. Before I, you know, kicked the bucket."
"Me?" she stammers, then recovers with, "Just me?" and a teasing smile.
He only grins at her. "Maybe." Then he stands and suggest they go home.
"I like that idea," she responds. They manage about three steps before she burst into tears and babbles, "I thought you were dead and gods I was scared that you up and left me," which she really doesn't mean. He waits patiently for her to finish. "And I can't…can't believe I like you…"
He laughs and scoops her into a hug that they both need. "I like you too Viper," he says mildly, and she suspects he's crying as well.
Gift, she decides contentedly, Seeing is definitely a gift.
Most of the time, anyway.
I like one-shots, okay? Don't ask me to explain myself.