This is the missing scene from both KFP2, 'The best plan,' KFP2 right after the defeat of Shen, and from KFP3 right after the fight with Kai.
KFP owned by Dreamworks.
THE NIGHTMARE
"Viper?"
"Shhh…." the female serpent turned around, signaling the insect, avian, and the golden langur to keep noise to the ultimate minimum.
"What?" Crane knotted his brows in confusion.
"Listen to this," she invited, signaling the rest to do the same. Placing their ears by the wooden door that separated the kitchen and the student's quarter, they heard two familiar voices, bickered over something.
"Po… tell me you are joking, we are not going to do this?" a voice of a female tiger came, loud and unrestrained.
"Why not?" the panda challenged.
"Isn't that obvious?" the tiger answered, "It'll be a very unpleasant experience… trust me."
"Have you ever tried it, though?" the panda rebutted stubbornly.
"No, of course not! Are you nuts? That's the most morbid idea I ever heard in my life!"
"Ahh… come onnnn Tigress. It'll be fun. Shall we try? Just once," the panda was persistently cajoling his friend.
"Well… ok. Do it slowly … I bet it'll...ugh...hurt." they heard her complying voice, dropping down to nervousness "...let's hope none of the others found out I have involved myself doing a ludicrous idea of yours," the tiger lowered down her voice."I could almost guarantee this is going to fail miserably." She said again, "So, what should I do first?"
"Heat that up." He commanded, "you won't be humiliated, trust me…. Anyway… they've seen enough of you doing crazy things with me, right?" they heard the panda chuckling teasingly.
The insect was the first to muffle his outburst while combing his dirty, twisted look towards other eavesdroppers.
"What are they doing?" Crane brows furrowed deeply. He whispered, but ears still firmly glued to the door.
"Something naughty…" Monkey put his hands over his mouth to stifle his chuckle.
"No… It would be something…. naughty," the insect rephrased, adding a scandalous look into the mixture.
"Geez, why would they do it in the kitchen, the door doesn't even have a lock! Wouldn't be in a bedroom or Wu Dan mountain would be more… private?" the avian master refuted.
"Or Shifu's bedroom," Monkey appended, flushing his head back onto the leaf of the door.
"Guys, are you crazy, Po and Tigress would never do that!" Viper defended with a sinister frown.
"You'll be surprised," the insect guffawed.
A few minutes later, they heard a sound of nervous, nail-biting rustling from inside the kitchen.
"Po… ready?" They heard Tigress whispering loudly.
"Ready."
A sudden yelp, clamorous sound of a pan and crashing plates reverberated from the kitchen, followed by a sound of the devious feminine chuckle. The floodgate of their curiosities was immediately unbridled, as the interlopers decided this was the right moment to barge in.
"Guys… what's going on?" Viper eyes widened witnessing the disheveled kitchen.
"Dude… w-what happened to you?" Mantis hastily leaped atop of the panda belly, watching him making a sporadic gagging motion, paws clutching tightly to his throat.
"Don't tell me Tigress was trying to murder you," Crane retorted sarcastically. The usually short tempered tiger was too busy laughing at her friend's suffering to notice Crane's slanderous remark.
"Po was trying to cook rice by eating it raw and drank boiling water," she explained, a wide grin still plastered across her face.
"Quick Po, infirmary!"
So Tigress had seen quite many sides of Po's jovial, eccentric, a little psychotic ― yet lovable persona. He was not normally letting himself being seen morose nor languid for many reasons, but all inevitably happened on their trip to Gongmen.
She found herself trailing behind him into a dark, scattered forest that eventually led them to a desolated village by the river outside Gongmen. It was clear that there was some kind of incursion many years ago in that place. He trudged through the killing zone, smoldering remains of houses that had been wrapped in a thick blanket of moss, the air was sour and eerie.
He stopped in the middle of the clearing, and headed to one of the house, carefully opened the door that was barely hanging on its hinges. The living room was small, covered with spider webs betwixt seared broken furniture, the floor was charred and covered with ashes. Suddenly his eyes went distant and soulless. His form was rigid and serious. She witnessed as the turmoil of emotion began to take form inside him, something very different from his usual extrovert and positive gentility until Tigress turned to call his name.
"Po? What is this place?"
The panda turned to her, but instead of giving her an answer, he barraged through the door and fled. Left confused, Tigress called his name, reaching out for him while tracking behind him into the dense forest.
She found his hunch silhouette by the grove of bamboo trees, lumbering forward, with both paws on his face. Finally, she saw the other side of the courageous, spirited and almost unbreakable hero that she knew - this was Po, not the Dragon Warrior. He had weaknesses and insecurities that he had to fight every now and then, and this was Po that her best friend. Kneeling next to him, she gently reached his shoulder while regulating her clipping breath from tearing her lungs.
"Po… you can tell me whatever, I am all ears."
He hearkened to her voice, and removed his paws from his face, letting her touched his face gently and repelled his tears away. A strange sorrow stirred her heart seeing him like that. She gazed tenderly at his glisten emerald eyes. She could see the turmoiling emotion and hundreds of things he wanted to say, but there were no words could ever describe how he felt right then.
"That… was a place where I was orphaned."
Then Tigress understood, Po just ran from the ghost of his past.
She remembered how vulnerable she was after witnessing the panda being shot by canon. Shen! Yes…. that deranged peacock whose desire for power and fame had brought a curse unto himself. She felt intensely hurt like there was a knife twisting there. And all obviously ignited inside that dank jail, when she made her first show of physical closeness with anyone in years, spelling out the extent of her empathy towards his desire to know his past. The hardcore does understand….. But of course, she couldn't afford to lose him. She felt the sense of fear was getting harder to ignore.
Unwittingly, her vision blurred, enshrouded by an unbidden blanket of tears.
It does not suppose to turn out like this, not one bit. Tigress chided her unbidden sentiment. You had never even cried over Shifu… nor cried over yourself!
How Po could truly forgive that demonic creature, was really beyond her. Not only Shen robbed him of his family, his kind - he had nearly done it twice…. TWICE! As if his suffering being the only panda wasn't enough, Shen was going to deprive the panda of his new found friends and family. This made her so angry with culminating rage. If she were Po, she would be spending her life in years of repressed hate, revulsion, and trauma. But instead, his face was masked with innocence and patience.
Maybe this was the true power of Dragon Warrior.
"Tigress, are you ok?" now his turn to sound genuinely concerned. She felt his paw reached her cheek, wiping something salty and wet. And then firmly he tugged her into his arm.
And this hug? No wonder it felt so right. This was exactly like the first hug he gave her…. down by the Gongmen pier. That gentle, concerned and relief look in his emerald eyes, his warm and comforting arms, his broad and plush shoulder, and his round, kind and innocent face.
"Tigress ― thank you. I knew you I could confide in you." His lips spread in a grin, a smile that untangled all her emotions into tranquility.
Po was able to see her not just as a mighty warrior, but also as a person.
Moreover as a friend.
It's finally over. The battle was concluded, the victory was won, and that evil chi collector was banished into the depth of the spirit realm for good.
But as all the excitement wear off, the effect of adrenaline dissipated, throbbing pain began to surface, reminding the warriors that indeed, they had gone through a lot these past few days. Clutching her afflicted torso, within her vantage ― Tigress could see some of his family were patching each other. Crane with Viper, Mantis with Monkey, and she saw Grandma Panda overbearingly giving a lecture to her father, while generously applying some strange looking solvent on his bruised shoulder ― which was hit by Kai's blade yesterday. The way her father cringed, winced, but mostly miffed with the old lady line of patronizing speech, had invited a generous, delightful smirk on her maw.
On the other side of her peripheral view, Mr. Ping had employed his excellent organizational skill that came from running a restaurant, and his culinary proclivity to feed the rest of the hungry mobs. They were all queued neatly in line with a bowl on their hand. While Li was helping a few males to patch up the broken roof dodged by the dumpling squad on their endeavor to distract the jombies. Not far from where she sat, Tigress saw the ongoing racket among the panda cubs over some leftover dumplings that were scattered under the table before the ordeal. While on her lap, Lei Lei gently snore and curled contentedly, clutching the mini figure of herself within her grasp.
It was nearly another genocide ― she shuddered at the thought, but a wave of deep relief immediately engulfed her. It was just a mere fiction from her pessimistic fantasy. The pandas nearly had to face sudden extinction twice, but it was only nearly… it had never actually happened.
"Tigress!" That booming voice deceptively came from his tiny comrade, Mantis carefully approached her with a bowl of bean bun, while prudently watching his movement not to wake the sleeping panda.
"This for you ― the hardcore still needs to eat," he gently teased, lowering his voice to an inaudible whisper.
"I am surprised you dare come near Lei Lei," the tiger retaliated back, reminding the insect of how much Lei Lei shipped him to date with her Tigress' action figure.
"Worst still, I might end up dating the real one… I think I'll stick with the wooden one," he satirically quipped before he left.
Tigress sat there, letting her mind wander as she started plowing politely into her first dinner in these past few days.
"Hey," she felt a familiar warm paw on her shoulder.
"My dad said we could use his hut, wanna come?" She met the tranquil emerald eyes of her best friend. Tigress nodded weakly, she cradled sleeping Lei Lei, and carefully passed her to Grandma Panda, who immediately averted her attention from rhetorically patronizing Shifu's recklessness.(Shifu could thank her later!)
"Tigress, Po… you both should rest for the night." Shifu commanded, his imperious gaze sternly landed on her. After raising the tiger for decades, he only knew how her strong willfulness would propel her to push herself beyond her physical limit. He could just see the argument forming on the tiger's chest in response to his utterance.
"You both need to be well enough before we sojourn back to Valley of Peace. And tomorrow, the pandas may need your strength to help them with the reconstruction." Her father judicious consideration immediately caused her line of defense died prematurely on her lips.
Shifu paid Dragon Warrior a meaningful nod before dismissing them. Both of them excused themselves to rest for the night. Soon, they were threading the bridge which led to Li's hut.
Po combed his sight upon his best friend overall figure. She had a few scrapes around her shoulder and her elbow where her qipao was torn, some minor bruises affected her knees and her face, while her paws were the worst; they were visibly swollen, and some of her claws had completely gone in exchange of bloody stump.
"You look bad," she heard Po commented, there was an edge of plaguing guilt in his voice. Even though Po had seen her in worse condition after valiantly confronting a blazing ball of metal that would forever leave a searing mark on her flesh, but seeing her battered, weakened and exhausted was as bad.
She reciprocated and looked at him meticulously, obvious bruising and laceration scattered all around his body from enduring the yak's single lethal blow. Even with his fluffiness, the evidence of the damage was loud and clear, almost reminding that his past ordeal with Tai Lung was merely a stroll in the park compared to this.
"I am sure this is not a fat mirror, but you look terrible yourself Po," she chuckled. Both smiled. After numerous missions together, they both knew so well how to alternate the role of nursing each other injuries…. and to banter satirical joke in between to alleviate the physical pain.
"I'll do yours first," the panda voiced his decision, inviting the tiger to sit on the edge of the bed, while he knelt in front of her. Tigress gave a notion of permitting him to examine her before he decided on appropriate treatment.
"Scraping, bruising, laceration…. the worst are your claws and your broken ribs," he announced his diagnosis. He stood up and interrogated the content of his father's medical cabinet before selecting a couple of ointments, oils and a few rolls of bandages.
"I still can't believe it… you actually climb that thing? Geez…. Tigress. I know you are hardcore, you don't have to prove that again to me y'know..." He jokingly made a remark about her tenacity overcoming the frozen waterfall, to climb beyond its limits and to reach the village above.
"No one tells me there is a manual lift next to it," she defended her decision.
"Well, no one asked!" Po taunted her back while his paw was laboriously washing and disinfecting the wounds on her palms and her knee. The medicinal smell hung in the air as soon as Po opened up the jars. He gently dabbed the solvent with a piece of rag onto the affected area. He mentally cringed witnessing the extensive scraping on the sole of her foot and her paws from continuously running from Valley of Peace to Panda Village, and imagining her effort climbing that frozen waterfall while bearing such injuries was beyond him.
"Please… don't do this again," Tigress noted the sudden upheaval in his tone. She looked at his somber, perturbed emerald eyes. "I won't if I don't have to," she replied diplomatically, slowing rubbing her other unattended paw reassuringly on the top of his paw. The panda smiled and sighed, a mixture of relief and remorse in his eyes.
Suddenly, he paused all of his activity, "Mm… I don't know how to do your ribs… without me―"
"Po, which one you choose, seeing me naked, or seeing me dead?" Tigress retorted bluntly with a hint of sarcasm. Sure Tigress hated feeling exposed and vulnerable, but she had trusted the panda with her life, besides… being unclad didn't reduce her ability to obliterate anyone to pieces.
"Ok, I think I got the point." He rolled his eyes, and helped her to undress, "...― anyway, I liked what I've seen," he teased, inviting a blush under her auburn fur. It's not Po's first time to see her half unclad. A few years ago, an arrow impaled her chest between her shoulder blade and her ribcage. He remembered the horrific sight of seeing her bathed in blood, heaving and breathing laboriously. He reminisced how he savagely tore her ensanguined qipao to get to the arrow without even thinking, while the four watching him with absolute terror of losing their comrades. Privacy and modesty were a second concern for saving one's life, and very much a distant concept of life as a warrior. They often had to share the same room and bathroom, all six of them ― regardless of size and gender. Anyway, if anyone had not noticed, Viper and Mantis were practically naked all the time.
"My Dad asks me to pass his words of gratitude to you." He quickly changed the topic, riposted nonchalantly, while rubbing more solvent onto her bare chest to numb her broken ribs before securing the bandage.
"I just did what needed to be done, Po. If they wanted to thank anyone for saving them today, it was down to you," she humbly replied.
"Hey… it's team effort Tigress. If you didn't warn us, we would patch each other in the Spirit Realm by now." He commended her effort in retribution.
Suddenly a bag of emotion falling like a brick.
"I nearly lost you guys today… all of you," he said morosely.
"That's exactly what I thought when you did that Wuxi finger-hold on yourself," her voice grinding hoarsely, almost mirroring his sentiment, "...but, do we have any other choices?" she exasperated while putting her garment back on as soon as he was done.
He brooded in distant silence for a momentary respite. That recurring nightmare of Tigress pushing him from the firing line, witnessing her broken and helpless, floating wearily on that forsaken plank of wood, still sometimes haunting him in his dreams. Despite her nerves of steel, soul of platinum, Po knew even steel and platinum would eventually bend under intense fire, and she was still mortal being after all. The agonizing look of her face while clutching Lei Lei was still fresh in his mind, never in his worst nightmare, he imagined to be living for the same moment again.
For Tigress, seeing him sacrificing himself to take away the devious villain from hurting his family, his loved ones would be her worst possible nightmare. She was just there, watch helplessly… in despair and fear.
Yes...they might have acted impulsively, carelessly without a second thought of consequences. But Tigress couldn't bear to see Shen's pursuit of killing him twice, neither could Po see Kai's undertaking to hurt her twice. However irrational, illogical, and reckless those decisions were….it was clear both of them had selflessly sacrificed themselves out of love and concern for the other.
After Po was done dealing with her, Tigress quietly started to dress his wounds. They sat in comfortable silence until Tigress opened up her voice with a lighter topic in mind.
"So, what did you do before I came?"
"Mmm…." the panda pondered,"...mainly my panda dad taught me how to live in perfect harmony with the universe as a panda."
Tigress snickered, almost had an inkling the direction of the training under Li Shan's tutelage, especially after she saw Po's unorthodox approach teaching martial arts to the pandas. "I bet that involved food larger than the size of dew on the gingko leaf," she teased.
Po laughed,"In fact, those little pandas taught me to eat with my full potential… not a dumpling at a time. And tomorrow I'll ask them to make you snacklace. Some form of an edible necklace. It's totally cool." Tigress smiled hearing a piece of enthusiasm had returned into his voice.
"And I'll teach you to climb that hill in a single leap, using the hammock."
"I bet I'll be good at that. I am much lighter than you."
"We'll see tomorrow," he challenged."...and next, you can try to beat me rolling down the hill. It's convenient, but it's harder than it looks because you can't see the direction you are going," he stated his dilemma.
"Well, I am not going to roll down the hill…" She replied, antagonizing his demand.
"But it's so much fun, Tigress!" The panda whined, berating his friend's lack of playfulness. Tigress mentally laughed at his hypocritical remark, because she overheard Li Shan and other pandas commenting that Po puked his entire dinner after a few futile pursuits to master the move. But well, Po had been living as a sole panda for the whole of his life, it was no wonder living a proper panda life was an entirely novel concept to him.
"You want me to break more of my ribs do you?" she reprimanded, a playful grin displayed on her face.
"Oh yeah, you are right." He piped in absently.
Suddenly, the playfulness in her face evaporated, and she went gravely silent as she nursed his injury around his torso. She traced the silver, callous thick skin surrounding his belly, a clear testament of what nearly took his life. Po could only be thankful. His thick pelt hid the variation of the awkward pattern on his skin very well, even his panda dad never quite noticed it. He couldn't imagine having to explain to him that the same demented peacock that nearly obliterated their kind was a breath close to killing him too.
While physically scar was easily obscured, the emotional scar was harder to deal with. Po noticed her paws began to shiver uncontrollably, and her sunset orbs began to glisten. He immediately impeded her paws from nursing his injuries further.
"Tigress…" he said comfortingly.
She remained silent but willingly followed his movement as he tugged her firmly into him. She fell into his arm, leaving herself cleaving to his huge and strong chest, listening to his heart thudding with a perfect comforting rhythm while curling contentedly with him around her. She nearly lost him today, and he almost lost her today. As both of them comforting each other, Tigress caught a glimpse of two portraiture on the alcove by the bedside.
"Is that… your mom?" she scrupulously inquired, while her bandaged paws quickly resumed their job and finishing up patching Po's torso. The panda smiled, albeit bitterly. Once the job was done, both of them leaned against the wall, and Po handed over the picture of her mother into her paw.
"I wish I knew more about her… remember more about her," his facade dropped together with his voice, and he could feel his chest tightened, and his throat began to narrow with a choke. Suddenly Tigress remembered their visit to that forsaken village. Po openly narrated to Shifu and the rest what had happened after the cannon ball hit him, and the soothsayer was aiding him to confront his terrible past and found inner-peace. But he took no one else except Tigress to that very village where he was orphaned. It involved a lot of tears and broken words to express his sorrow.
"She is going to be very proud of you, Po…. to watch what kind of hero you've grown into."
The panda looked at the tiger as she smiled sincerely. "Without her sacrifice, China won't have her defender… Oogway won't have his successor…. Shifu would never find his peace….your goose father would never have a son….and I would never meet my best friend."
He smiled, undoubtedly he was surrounded by so many friends, but Tigress was one of the very few who truly understood him.
Suddenly, her unbridled laughed erupted breaking the petulant mood.
"Don't tell me you tried to eat this?" she traced the bite mark around one of the edges of the portrait amusingly.
"You know, a panda would do anything for food." A gentle smile crept upon his maw as she handed back the picture to him.
"I didn't know that until I know you," Tigress chuckled softly.
"Right, I think we better rest now." Tigress yawned and rolled onto her side, giving the panda some of the space on the bed. Po kissed the picture gently before placing it back into the alcove next to the solitary candlestick. "Good night, Mom." He whispered, pulling his leg up to join Tigress.
"Wait…the others are going to join us later, right?"
The panda just shrugged,"...I think just two of us tonight." He replied casually. Tigress eyes narrowed with suspicion. She reminisced the meaningful nod Shifu had given the panda before they left to Li's hut, however, knowing her adopted father…. he usually would be very conservative with this kind of thing.
"Po… how did you managed to do this?" She questioned, a heap of annoyance in her voice.
"What?" He said innocently.
"Asking Shifu's permission to let us share a bedroom… just us."
"I have my ways," he joked playfully, but Tigress was not buying it.
"Po! Tell me!" She hissed under her breath, pulling the blanket the panda used to obstruct her grilling stare. The panda's playful grin quickly dissolved into a nervous grimace. He quickly rebuked himself for even asking Shifu for such privilege which now had turned into a living nightmare.
"You'll figure out soon enough," his unsatisfying explanation only vexed the tiger further.
"I won't let you sleep until you tell me," Tigress asserted her predatory interrogation method and aggressively pushed the panda with her unnatural strength, tossing him right to the floor. Subsequently, she pounced him (albeit carefully, they are both injured) and pinned him down to the floor. The panda just expelled an explosive sigh, acknowledging the tiger's inevitable victory.
"Fine fine… I promised to take him to see Master Oogway….. once." He groaned, mentally berating why Tigress's perseverant personality could be insufferable sometimes.
"That's it?" She released her grip. Eyes still danced in disbelief.
"Yes… well, aren't you happy spending a little time with me?" He crept slowly back onto the bed. She looked at him, face etched with a fantastically peculiar mix of surprise on his forwardness and irritation on his childish behavior.
She fell quiet on his question."You are making use of your power, Po," she argued. Nevermind if she was happy to spend time with him, but making use his power in an exchange with some personal desire…..well, unethical.
"Anything wrong with that? I am just giving him a favor." He contended his own rationale.
"Look, I haven't talked to you for the entire week! The only thing close to 'talking' was that minor repartee we exchanged when your foot was on my cheek just to proof I need to be a master of chi to defeat Kai." She staggered back slightly on his offended tone.
Almost dictated by his unusual show of aggression, Tigress quickly realized, Po wanted to have some alone time with her. He was mentally drained from the battle and needing some of her support.
"I-I am sorry Po," she apologized, lying down on her side, on the bed, next to him in her attempt to clear the uncouth atmosphere between them.
"Let's hope we have no nightmare of losing anyone tonight." He muttered as he sprawled his arm for Tigress head to rest in. She picked up an uncharacteristic rasp in his voice, and his usually calm, jovial features which were sharpening into a despondent frown.
Tigress furrowed her brows slightly as she rested her head atop of his arms, it was indeed a terrible cliche, even when the thought of losing him and her family was deeply tormenting her more than she cared to admit, but for heaven's sake… they were warriors, and facing death was their rice and noodles (as opposed to bread and butter).
"Po… I could never promise to be with you all the way. But as long as I lived, I would be the sharpest blade in your hand, your impregnable armor in battle, to fight alongside you…. in triumphant victory or crumbling defeat."
He felt his eyes warmed up hearing her pledge of adherence. He leaned forward, requited her devotion with a gentle kiss on her forehead. The tiger generously consented his offer and accepted his gift shyly.
"Goodnight Tigress." He whispered.
She responded in kind, just a touch louder. "Goodnight Dragon Warrior."
Po girded her tired form closer, not wanting any distance between them. Not here, not now, not ever. He mused over this day, and many other behind it. What had happened, what was now, and what was to be. He gazed at the glimpse of his heroine next to him, both of them battered, exhausted and sore. But she smiled at him as the string of nostalgia settled back in his face.
When he saw her, he fell in love. She smiled because she knew.
Then he realized, both of them did have nightmares…. but mostly… they had been living their dreams.
The words from Tigress was inspired from the Chinese melodrama "the Empress" (Empress Wu Zetian)
When he saw her, he fell in love. She smiled because she knew. - Shakespeare