I watched Kung Fu Panda 3 recently and I was mesmerized by the emotional development of Tigress, going from looking shocked at receiving a hug at the end of the second movie to running full speed into Po's embrace at the end of the third with a smile on her face.
Then I got this idea floating in my mind and like a song with a catchy tune, it refuses to go away. I usually write fanfiction for another show but I had to write this. It will be a multi-chapter story but I don't know how long it will be (also, my time is limited so new chapters can take a while). I have the ending already mapped out and partially written, but how much there will be in the middle depends on the response of you, the readers ^^
Just so you know, I will make references to the movies and the TV show, so for those who haven't seen the latter, it might become a bit confusing at times.
Enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the franchise. If I did, I wouldn't be sitting in a small apartment ^^
'Inner peace. Inner peace. Inner peace.'
Tigress repeated those words like a mantra, trying to achieve what Po had managed in a record setting short time, according to Master Shifu. Normally, she would have attempted to make a flower grow with her Chi but after that had failed, her master had suggested to try to achieve inner piece, as it would help her focus more on her Chi.
She opened an eye and looked to her right, where Po was doing his inner peace routine, those fluid movements he had first demonstrated during the climactic confrontation with Shen and his fleet of cannon-armed ships. She marveled at his self-control, the change from the clumsy panda who tended to fall down the thousand steps to the one moving in a graceful manner belying his appearance.
A drop of water from the peach tree they were under fell on his outstretched paw and she watched in fascination as it rolled over his fur, down his arm, over his shoulder and down his other arm where he let it fall to the ground. She stood up from her kneeling position and copied his movements, looking up to watch for a drop to form.
When she noticed one, she took a step to the right and lifted her arm the same way Po had, and the drop fell onto her hand, where it splashed immediately and soaked that little part of her paw. She let out a low growl at her failure, clenching her fist and trying again, doing the moves once more before catching another drop of water that splashed the same way as the fist.
Po, for his part, watched his best friend try to repeat his own actions. He knew what she was trying to do but he also had an inkling of why she had trouble achieving inner peace. He watched on as she tried it a second time, failing again as he had predicted but he knew he needed to interfere now, otherwise Tigress would turn sulky again and scare poor Lei Lei like she had done a few days ago.
"You're doing it wrong." Po's voice came through her second growl, reminding her that he was next to her.
"Then please tell me, oh master, what am I doing wrong?" Tigress growled, saying the word master like an insult but immediately regretting it. "Sorry."
"Master?" he chuckled, setting the staff he got from Oogway down against the tree. "Tigress, I told you, while I accept that you have to keep up appearances in public, in private I am Po."
"You're still our teacher now."
"Don't remind me." he sighed. "At least Shifu agreed to keep teaching the other Pandas."
After Kai had been defeated and the celebration in the Valley of Peace was over, most Pandas had returned to the secret village. Two families had stayed, along with Po's father, wanting to learn Kung Fu which they could then pass on to the other Pandas and for that reason, Shifu had agreed to teach them, since Po had admittedly little success in actually teaching fighting techniques, whereas Shifu had a natural talent to teach any race the style best suited to them.
"Alright Po, what am I doing wrong." Tigress brought them back to topic.
"You're trying to force it."
"But I'm doing the exact same thing you do, down to the last twitch of my foot." she argued. "And don't get me started on the Chi, there has been no success at all, not even a small glow of the hand."
"Ti, it's not the movements alone. You have to let go of your worries and embrace everything."
"I don't know how." she sighed.
"Let me try to show you." he said and stepped behind her.
She watched in confusion as he took two pieces of twine and bound their ankles together before putting his paws into hers and linking their fingers so he could control her. A part of her screamed out, wanting to get out of his grasp but Po had become her best friend and she trusted him implicitly. She closed her eyes and let him move her, feeling the familiar movements she had done before.
"It's not just moving around slowly." his low and deep voice reverberated in her ear, sounding impossibly close and causing her heartbeat to go up for some reason. "You need to think about your life and accept it. Every facet of it."
"I don't know how." she whispered, her memory of her early childhood a painful one.
"Just follow my voice." he said in a whisper of his own and led his best friend, who kept her eyes closed and felt his heart beat against her back.
Meanwhile, Shifu was moving towards the peach tree, the training sessions with the Pandas over for today. Right now, they were headed into the village, where they would surely eat the kitchen of the restaurant of Po's father empty, something they had done twice since they arrived, which also had delighted the elderly goose since it brought in massive earnings.
He had to admit, he was impressed with those Pandas. While they weren't as intuitive with Kung Fu as Po was, who seemed to master any technique by just watching it once, like the Golden Lotus Clap, they picked up quickly and had, in one month, already learned more than other students in a year.
When he turned the last corner to the tree, he stopped in his tracks when he saw his adopted daughter and the Dragon Warrior in a tight embrace, her back against his chest with their feet tied together and his hands on hers, leading her movements. Shifu watched as Po went through the motions of inner peace, smiling at his mastery and he saw a water droplet fall on Tigress' hand, rolling down her arm and stopping at her chest when it soaked into her vest.
When that happened, he heard a sound he hadn't heard since he began training her as a cub. Tigress gave out a shrieking laugh of delight, proud of her accomplishment. He smiled at her achievement but decided to interrupt the two, since he still had to talk to Po about the other Pandas. He closed in on them just as Po untied their feet.
"See, you can do it." he heard Po say.
"I can't believe it." Tigress smiled back and their gazes locked.
"Ahem." Shifu interrupted, making both snap their heads around. "I'm sorry to interrupt but I need to talk to Po."
"I will meditate some more." Tigress said and bowed to both Shifu and Po who bowed back and took his staff.
"So, Master, what did you want to talk to me about?" Po asked Shifu as they walked away from the tree.
"I wanted to talk to you about your people but first, what did you and Tigress do?"
"She asked me to help her with the inner peace technique, she's unable to manage it. Also, since our celebration, she has been unable to focus her Chi." Po explained.
"Focusing one's Chi is a difficult task." Shifu said and eyed Po. "At least for most people. Even the other Masters barely manage to do it. None of the villagers have done it again."
"But at least Crane, Viper and the others have gotten a small flower to bloom. Tigress told me that she hadn't even gotten her hand to glow."
"I'm afraid Tigress is caught in a circle. She doesn't achieve inner peace, which frustrates her. That makes her try harder but the frustration increases the difficulty of achieving inner peace." Shifu sighed. "Tell me Po, in your opinion, will Tigress achieve inner peace some day?"
"I'm afraid not." Po sighed, making Shifu proud at his ability to read his daughter but sad at the same time because he himself had gotten to the same conclusion.
"And why not?"
"Because I only achieved inner peace when I learned about my past. All my life I had this worry in the back of my mind, that my parents abandoned me because I was a burden. But when I learned the real reason, I was able to accept it. Tigress doesn't have the same luxury. She was abandoned as a cub but nobody knows who dropped her off and why."
"No, I don't know anything either." Shifu said, forestalling Po's question.
"I wonder if there are any information at the orphanage where you adopted her." Po wondered.
"You could ask. But I highly doubt it." Shifu said. "Remember, they found Tigress in a basket in front of the door without any note attached to it."
"I'll go right now." Po said excited.
"Not tonight." Shifu shook his head. "You have another task and we still have to talk about you and your people."
"What about them?"
"They are making very good progress." Shifu said proudly. "It's possible that they could finish their training in less than three months."
"That's great!" Po replied excitedly. "But why did you need to talk to me specifically?"
"I would understand if you wanted to return with them to their village. They are your people after all."
"No, I am staying here." Po stated. "This was my home before I found my people and it will be my home in the future. I will visit them from time to time, knowing that they exist is joy enough."
"Good." Shifu nodded. "Now come with me."
Shifu led Po back into the palace and down into the dungeons. Walking past several empty cells, Po wondered where they were going until they arrived at a room filled with scrolls. There were less than the thousand scrolls of Kung Fu but still several hundred, neatly stacked up in three alcoves. A narrow tunnel to the right led to another room.
"What is all this? And what's over there?" Po asked, pointing to the narrow door.
"These are the teacher scrolls." Shifu explained. "They tell you the best ways to educate others in Kung Fu."
"And the other room?"
"Those are Oogway's personal scrolls. Nobody is allowed to touch them out of an emergency. And I mean nobody." Shifu glared at Po.
"Understood." Po nodded, his curiosity spiking nonetheless.
"Take these two scrolls and learn them." Shifu ordered, handing Po two scrolls from the bottom.
"Yes, master." Po nodded and sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall.
"Dinner is in an hour. Your father is cooking." Shifu smiled and left Po alone.
"Stripey baby!" a tiny voice squealed, snapping Tigress out of her meditation, which didn't really work anyway, just before a mass bumped into her side.
"Hello, Lei Lei." Tigress smiled.
She looked down at the Panda cub and ran her hand over the little one's head. While she was, during the adventure in the Panda village, a little annoyed at the little Panda because of her clingy nature, she had really taken to the little one after it had worn her down with her sheer sweetness.
'Much like Po.' Tigress thought, her eyes going wide at the direction her thoughts went.
"What are you doing here?" she asked the little one.
"Stripey baby sad?" Lei Lei asked in her innocence.
"A little bit." Tigress admitted. "But don't tell anyone."
"I won't." Lei Lei giggled and held out one arm, the other still clutching the Tigress action figure.
"By the way, where did you get that action figure?" Tigress asked. "You had it at your village too."
"Po gave it to me." Lei Lei grinned. "So beautiful."
"He must really like you to part with that figure." Tigress said, knowing that the figure of her was Po's favorite.
"Li made dinner." Lei Lei giggled, pointing to the palace.
"Then lets go eat." Tigress smiled and took the little one into her arms, playing her on her shoulders and carrying her back.
As the others were on their way to the kitchen, Po was still sitting in the dungeon, reading the second scroll describing the best way to train a tiger, the strength and weaknesses of that particular race. He knew some of it already, since his best friend was a tiger, and she was ferocious in battle, strong and agile and he also knew some of her weaknesses like a tendency to become jealous, her armpit and the dry-heaving after hearing the word slurp.
"Hello, where did you come from?" Po asked into the air as a peach petal flew past him on an air current that wasn't there.
He watched it float into the other room, the one where Oogway's scrolls were located and where Shifu had forbidden him to go. Seeing it as a sign, and also thanks to his unstoppable curiosity, he got up and walked into the other, smaller room, seeing several rows of scrolls in two alcoves. He knew one of those scrolls since Shifu had read it to get information on Kai but others were still unknown. Po watched the peach petal float up and forward, landing on a certain scroll which he took and unrolled.
"Traveling through the spirit realm." Po read the title and unrolled it further.
The scroll described ways of using the spirit realm as a shortcut by entering it and exiting it again at a different place by focusing on the destination. Po knew it was possible, since he had entered and exited the spirit realm already but the scroll also said that it was a very difficult endeavor to concentrate enough to actually exit at a different place than where one entered.
Not only that, the scroll also described the possibility of taking someone with him, the way he had pulled Kai into the spirit realm proved that it was possible at least one way. And according to the scroll, the return to the real world was also possible with someone else in tow. He thought about trying it and, after a few seconds of contemplating, decided to go for it, since the peach petal had to be a sign.
He put his staff on his back and walked into one of the empty cells where he closed his eyes and took his left hand between his right thumb and index finger, lifting his pinkie finger up in preparation of the Wuxi Finger hold. Taking another deep breath and closing his eyes, he lowered the finger, not bothering to voice the action and felt the energy circle around him and peach petals caressing his fur.
"Dragon Warrior." an old but amused voice said, making Po open his eyes.
"Master Oogway." Po smiled and took a bow even though he was still floating.
"I see you have gotten my message. Though I didn't expect you to come to me immediately."
"Yes, I read your scroll." Po nodded. "Spirit world travel. Is it really possible to go back and appear at a different place than you entered the spirit worl?"
"Yes, but you can only return to places you have already visited before, since you need to visualize them. Otherwise you might appear high in the sky or inside a mountain."
"Oh, that would be bad." Po chuckled but got serious again. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"One of your fellow masters. Tigress." Oogway said seriously.
"Oh, what about her?" Po asked. "Is she in danger?"
"Yes."
"Is someone trying to hurt her?"
"She is in danger but not from an external enemy. She is at a crossroads and needs your help to stay on the path of light." Oogway told him.
"What do you mean? Tigress is awesome and she is dedicated to protecting others." Po argued.
"Yes. But deep inside her, a spark of jealousy has lit which could turn her on the dark path of destruction."
"Jealousy? Of whom?"
"You." Oogway pointed at Po.
"Me? Why would she be jealous of me? She already accepted that I'm the Dragon Warrior."
"Yes and she cares very deeply about you." Oogway smiled. "But she is also envious of your ability to master any technique quickly and seemingly without effort. And she hasn't been able to achieve inner peace or express her Chi since she did it last time."
"But during the celebration it came so easy to her." Po argued.
"That was because you were there."
"Me? What does my presence have to do with it? Master, what can I do?" Po asked.
"Help her achieve inner peace the same way you did." Oogway replied and floated away.
"Master, wait!" Po shouted but Oogway was already gone. "Damn, why can't these enlightened masters never make anything clear."
Po thought hard about Oogway's advice. He himself had achieved inner peace by learning the truth about his past and his parents, then accepting that even then he lived a pretty nice life, being loved by his adopted father even if the other kids had made fun of him for his size and clumsiness. He realized that Tigress had a similar origin but a different life, being abandoned by her parents without knowing why and growing up feared by other kids and then adopted by Shifu who never truly showed her love.
"Alright master Oogway, I guess it's time for me to help Tigress find out about her parents." Po said to himself and took his staff from his back.
He concentrated hard on the peach tree and dipped the staff into the Chi ocean under him, creating another Yin Yang symbol like he had done when he had returned after defeating Kai. With a flash, he was gone and reappeared floating right under the peach tree, the peach petals announcing his arrival before he fell the two feet to the ground.
Unbeknownst to him, a pair of eyes had watched him leave the spirit world and the owner of those eyes vowed to himself to wait for the Dragon Warrior to come back so he could return to the real world as well and take his revenge.
"Ah, Po, there you are." Li greeted his son, placing another bowl of dumplings on the table.
"Po, something wrong?" Tigress asked, seeing Po look at her intently.
"No, everything's okay." Po looked away and sat down, leaning his staff against the table.
"Son, there you go." Li said and put an extra bowl in front of Po.
"Thanks dad." Po grinned and began eating his dumplings.
"Mister Shan, these are amazing." Tigress commented.
"Please, call me Li." Li said. "That goes for all of you." he added into the round.
"Po, did you do something?" Monkey asked.
"Why?" Po returned.
"I wondered as well." Viper spoke up. "It almost looks as if you are glowing."
"And why is there a peach petal on your back?" Mantis wanted to know, jumping on Po's back and taking the petal off of him.
"I... uh..." Po stammered, unsure whether to tell them of his formidable achievement of doing the spirit world translocation but risking Shifu's ire in the process since he disobeyed Shifu's direct order, even though Oogway called him.
"You were snacking on peaches again, weren't you." Tigress smiled at him.
"Yeah, you got me." Po chuckled, happy to have an excuse.
While they ate, Li regaled the others with a tale of Po as a baby, when he was still with them, making them laugh, even Po. He lost his smile when he thought back to the image of his mother placing him into the radish basket before running away to distract the wolves while his little arms stretched out in a futile attempt to get her back.
The others felt his sadness, Li most of them since he also lost his wife on that fateful day. Tigress looked at both of them with sympathy, knowing how it felt to lose a parent. But unlike them, her own past was still a mystery. Had she been a disappointment to her parents? Was it because she was a girl? Were her parents good or bad people?
After Shifu dismissed them to their rooms, the Five walked to the barracks. Tigress noticed Po hanging back with Shifu, talking in low tones and sometimes pointing to her. Standing at her door, she watched and simply admired her best friend. He had changed much from the clumsy panda and while he still looked pretty much the same, his assured demeanor made him that much more attractive.
'What the...?' she shook her head at the thought and fled into her room.
"Po, you should turn in too now." Shifu said.
"Master, there's one more thing I need to talk to you about, in private."
"Alright, follow me." Shifu nodded and led Po into his own room, where the burning candles turned it into a sanctuary of peace. "What's on your mind?"
"I disobeyed your order."
"Which one?" Shifu lifted his eyebrows, not really surprised.
"When I was reading the scrolls you have me, a peach petal flew past me, without wind I might add, into the other room and landed on one of Oogway's personal scrolls. I took it and read it."
"Oh?" Shifu was more intrigued than angry. "What did it say?"
"It described a technique called spirit world translocation." Po told him. "A way to use the spirit world as a short cut."
"WHAT?" Shifu exclaimed. "How is that possible?"
"Well, you know that I used the Wuxi Finger Hold on myself to bring Kai back to the spirit realm, right?" Po asked and Shifu nodded. "And you saw me returning."
"Yes, I did."
"And the scroll said that it's possible for someone to go into the spirit realm and reappear somewhere else, as long as that someone has already visited that point so he can visualize it."
"Po, did you try that already?" Shifu asked.
"Yes. Not just because to try it but I sensed that the floating peach petal was a sign from Oogway and I was right."
"You visited Oogway?" Shifu was shocked. "What did he say?"
"He told me that Tigress may be on a path to darkness."
"WHAT?" Shifu shouted again. "My daughter?"
"Yes, she is jealous of my ability to absorb new knowledge and techniques and that might trigger a dark turn in her attempts to match me."
"We can't allow that. Did he also say how to prevent that?"
"He gave hints." Po nodded. "I think we need to find out why her parents left her at the orphanage. I achieved inner peace after finding out about mine and accepting my life. I believe Tigress can't do that without knowing the reasons why she was left behind."
"And how do you propose to achieve that?"
"By traveling into the south-western parts of China where the tiger tribes live."
"Po, are you sure? The region is dangerous. Granted, the tribes on the Chinese side of the border are comparatively quiet and peaceful to their non-tiger neighbors but at the border itself and across it there are internecine skirmishes between the tribes." Shifu counseled Po.
"I know but I still have to try."
"What do you propose?"
"Me and Tigress will go. She needs to learn about her past and I can keep an eye on her and further her training while we're traveling."
"Alright." Shifu sighed, bowing to the inevitable. "But don't just pack your bags and leave, I want you to go to sleep now and tomorrow make a proper plan. Where to travel, how you get there and so on."
"Yes, master." Po bowed and turned to leave.
"Oh, and Po?" Shifu stopped him.
"Master?"
"The next time you go into the spirit realm to visit Oogway... take me with you."
"Yes, master." Po smiled and left for his room.
As Po got into bed and lay there, he looked at the ceiling, his mind locked in thought about how to undertake the task he had set himself. With a start, he realized that he had to ask Tigress if she even wanted to go but he was determined to convince her if she was hesitant because the last thing he wanted to do was fight Tigress in any other way but sparring.
So, end of Chapter 1. Thoughts? Comments are appreciated but if you flame, I will bring Sally Struthers to your door and she will make you feel very very bad about yourself :D
Review please :)
