Ignite
Author's note: I don't own anything so don't sue, also this is a oneshot with a somewhat open ending but I might make a sequel if the readers are interested.
For the first time in her life Master Tigress has achieved inner peace; she finally realized that the forces that held her back weren't created by the world around her but from her own insecurities.
It is here in her new home that she understands that the only approval she needs is from herself, that in the end it was useless to seek the love of others when she didn't even love herself first. But even then, when she had pushed everyone around her away, she had been loved. She was loved by her friends and her masters just as much as she had loved them.
She was born out of parents that gave her away and was raised by a stern master who was never truly satisfied with her progress, no matter how hard she tried. The proud feline was constantly plagued by anger that could only be controlled through the most stern focus and lots of emotional repression. She had been trained for a higher destiny that was taken away at the last minute by a bumbling panda that fell from the sky, burdened with his incompetence first, surpassed and humbled from his superior abilities later on.
Still of all the friends she left behind the one she misses the most is Po, sure she's glad to have gotten rid of his shadow, the relationship they had usually ranged between annoyance to jealousy, but there was also friendship and love. In spite of how much she misses him part of her is glad that she doesn't have to compete with him anymore.
In here she doesn't have a master to obey, no higher destiny to achieve, for the first time in her whole life she can practice Kung Fu for the sheer pleasure of it and not as a duty for anyone else. It was that freedom that truly unlocked her potential to unimaginable levels. Free of her old boundaries her talent has grown exponentially, her mind no longer held back by the negative feelings that used to plague her all the time, she twirls on the sky with a grace no dancer could mach and strikes with a force no warrior could face.
Too bad she couldn't do any of this when she was alive; it would have been really useful.
Tigress floats over a lake that shimmers with gold, a golden peach tree forever blooming drops flower petals around her, in the distance Master Oogway practices his tai chi, the spirit world shines with iridescent beauty.
-"You have become a formidable warrior Tigress, your enlightment has brought you great power"- the wise turtle tells her while never breaking the fluidity of his own movements.
-"Thank you Master Oogway"- Still floating in the sky she bows to him in respect.
-"Oh just call me Oogway, I'm not your master anymore but I'm happy to be your guide should you ever need my help"- In here he claims to be her friend instead of a mentor, yet he surveys her progress with a watchful sapience, Tigress could not be happier to be the center of attention for once instead of competing with the powerful Dragon Warrior.
But then she senses a change in the atmosphere, the golden beauty of the landscape is replaced by a rusty red that smells of smoke and blood, from the horizon a gargantuan black creature emerges with eyes of burning fire. Its steps echo all over the spirit world, a black tail made of shadows slithers on the raging wind, closer and closer he comes until she can smell the smoke on his breath.
As it stands tall she can see the monster looming over her is a black dragon.
With a well practiced stance she assumes a fighting position, she can tell this creature belongs to the dark side.
-"What is it that you want?"- She asks with a menacing growl
The dragon tells her in a grave raspy voice she finds familiar but can't quite recognize -"To burn everything on my path, to destroy all evil until only the innocent roam the earth, and in the end I might as well burn the entire world if I'm not stopped"-
-"Why would you do that?"- She asks keeping her calm, her yellow eyes turn into dangerous slits
His languid yet imposing frame crawls closer to her -"I would do it for you, my tigress. All the deaths, all the destruction, all the chaos unbalancing the universe, I would do that in your name"-
-"What do you mean? I would never ask you to do something like that"- She says confused, mentally preparing herself for an attack that would never come.
The creature locks his eyes with hers and looking at them she can now tell he has no intention to fight, instead he bows to her feet, his huge snout blows warm air on her toes -"I'll do that because of love"-
Lowering her fighting stance she eyes the dragon wearily -"You will be stopped, the universe will find a way to defeat you"-
There is sadness behind the raging fire on his eyes -"The only one who can defeat me is you"-
And with those last words the dragon vanished, the spirit world regained its usual golden hue. Turning around she saw Master Oogway looking at her with a somber expression
-"What was that all about?"- She asks bewildered
The turtle sighed and slouched holding onto his cane, as if his sadness weighted on him -"A vision Tigress, one that speaks of doom and chaos, it is warning us that the universe might lose its balance very soon. And when it happens many people will perish"-
-"All right then we have to warn the others on the world of the living, is it possible to send them a message?"-
-"In order to be useful the message needs to be understood, it was directed at you Tigress, what do you think it means?"-
-"Well there is a dark dragon so…. Is it related to Po? Could there be another dragon warrior working for the dark side?"-
The turtle shook his head -"There is and will only be one dragon warrior"-
She immediately understood what Oogway meant, and didn't like it one bit -"Po will turn to the dark side? But that's impossible! He achieved inner peace and complete harmony with the universe a long time ago"-
-"Peace and harmony are hard to obtain, and ever harder to keep, you would be surprised how easy it can be to shatter them. Po being so powerful makes him even more vulnerable to evil"-
With that statement the ancient turtle drew a circle on the surface of the lake with his new jade cane, creating a window into the world of the living.
It was the first time since her death that she could have a glimpse into the mortal world, the former master peeked into the portal with growing curiosity, she wanted to see if her friends were alright.
At the clear image of the training hall she was flooded with memories from her previous life, some good, some bad. Yet most of them were fueled by the need to accomplish something she now knows was always out of her grasp, countless times she had trained in that hall in her search for perfection, now she knows perfection is as impossible as it is misleading.
In there she sees the remaining parts of the furious five, all concentrating in their respective exercises. Viper deflects arrows with her tail, monkey and crane face off on the jade turtle and mantis seems to practice several strikes on a wooden dummy.
They look different, she can tell their strikes are more forceful and a permanent scowl is plastered on all their faces, but other than that they seem to keep it together. It is understandable, had she been on their places and one of her friends had been killed in combat she wouldn't be smiling either, not that she had ever smiled much anyway.
Sure they aren't happy, but they are still fighting and she knows that eventually they would move on with their lives, hopefully they would learn a few valuable lessons from their failed combat and no more of her friends would die before their time.
Then the Master Dragon Warrior enters the hall and hits the floor with his jade cane, the sound reverberates from the floors to the whole room, signaling the end of the warm up period and the start of the real training.
She couldn't recognize him at first, the dark looming figure looked nothing like her old friend. His body fat seemed to have melted away revealing all the muscle mass he had honed in the past few years, his green eyes shone more brightly than before, striking a contrast from the redness around his orbs. He was fit now, but somehow she didn't find his new physique more appealing, to her he seemed like he just wasted away. She had been gone for about three months but he seemed to have aged more than ten years in her absence, his sunken cheeks created shadows on his features, the bitterness on his face made the rest of her friends seem happy in comparison. He wore a black tunic over his new dark grey pants (his old shorts would fit too loosely now), as if he were still in mourning
With a grave expression he saluted his students -"I prepared four dummies outside, I hope you practiced your techniques"- His voice sounds like a dull raspy growl, it's devoid of any emotion.
Once outside he gave the remaining masters a dead serious glance and showed them a small sand clock –"As you know we leave tonight for our final encounter with Fènghuáng, for months we have trained so we could avenge Tigress, but there is one final test you need to pass before we leave.
We are not going to show any mercy with either him or his army, from now on, we all strike for the kill."- Signaling the dummies and the sand clock with his large hands he told them –"You have two minutes to kill you opponents, viper you go first"-
The snake propelled herself towards the dummies' neck and wrapped her tail around its shoulders while securing the head with her teeth, with a strong calculated move the wooden neck was broken and the dummies' head rolled on the ground.
-"Excellent work, Viper. Your technique was fast, effective and simple"- The snake vowed at her master's praise, a hint of venomous malice in her eyes
–"Now it's Monkey's turn"- Po said aiming his cane at the simian
The Monkey master climbed into the dummies' torso and wasted no time in breaking through the wood and straws with his hand, easily penetrating the outer layers, his battle cry was a savage scream where his long sharp teeth were bared in a very menacing growl, in a swift motion he tore a chunk of straws that represented the heart of his opponent.
-"Brutal and terrifying, I'm impressed"- Po even gave his student a small bow of praise.
From the spirit world Tigress looked horrified, Po wasn't training kung fu masters, he was creating assassins!
She had to suppress a cold shudder when she saw crane impaling his opponent with his large hard beak, and a wave of nausea washed over her when she saw mantis pulling apart the straws of the dummy were an opponent's eyes should be. For every act of simulated brutality the Grand Master gave high praise.
By the time the small sand clock finished its course four mangled piles of straw and wood littered the exterior garden.
-"Master Dragon says you are finally ready"- Shifu told her previous comrades while strolling into the open space, he had that cold stern expression Tigress had met most of her childhood. But if Po had aged ten years in her absence the small red panda probably aged thirty more, not even in his angriest grumpiest day he had looked as dejected as he did now.
The four masters bowed in a respectful salute but he didn't seem to acknowledge them
-"Yes they are, we leave tonight to the Mongolian wastelands"- Po informed his previous master.
-"My question is Dragon Warrior, are you ready to face Fènghuáng?"- He said lifting a skeptical eyebrow, giving him the trademarked glare that made most of his students squirm.
Po held his gaze firmly and with a flick of his wrist the wood and straws were set on fire, within seconds not even the ashes had remained.
Tigress couldn't help to flinch while observing that particular trick, after all it was that maneuver the one that killed her, and now the Dragon Warrior had mastered it. She died in the Mongolian Wastelands were they were set to face what they thought was a regular bandit with a large posse, but ten minutes into combat it was obvious the wolves they were battling against were formidable warriors belonging to a small army. At the last minute she saw the leader amass a ball of red energy into his hand and threw it at Po, she pushed him out of the way in the nick of time but was hit by it squarely in the chest.
She doesn't remember what happened next, all she knows is that she was set on fire from the inside out and that the last face she saw before crossing over was of her panda.
Focusing on the present and the images on the portal she wondered why Shifu seemed to be okay with the violent turn his own students had taken, the master she knew wouldn't just stand by as his protégés practiced such dark martial arts.
-"So you have mastered the Phoenix Strike, I guess you'll use it on your enemy"- Shifu told Po with a misleading casual tone.
-"I'll use it on all my enemies, the entire army of that tyrant will burn to ash"- There was such rage in his voice that upon hearing it the fur on Tigress' back stood on end, it was the unmistakable confirmation that his heart had been possessed by the dark side.
-"And then what will happen? Once you get your revenge, do you think you'll achieve inner peace again?"- Shifu asked arching one of his long eyebrows.
That made the panda laugh, not the careless childlike laughter she had often heard from her friend but a bitter maniac chuckle that expressed more misery than humor.
-"Did I ever tell you that before she was killed Tigress actually asked me to retreat? All the other masters agreed, they could tell we were outnumbered and our enemies were much more powerful than we thought. But I the super powerful Dragon Master refused to listen and told them to keep fighting, I was convinced we were invincible and didn't realize my mistake until it was too late, by the time we actually retreated she was nothing but ash flying on the wind"- His eyes are jade pools of sorrow while his mouth twists in an unnatural grin, it's the perfect picture of insanity –"No Master Shifu, I will never have inner peace"-
There is no rage in the older panda's eyes, just pity. –"So you ignored the advice of your fellow warriors and in your careless overconfidence allowed your friend, my daughter, to die."-
-"I deserve your hate Master Shifu, and accept whatever penance you might impose on me"-
-"I could never punish you more than you already punish yourself. Tell me panda, when was the last time you slept? Or ate more than a few cubes of tofu?"-
-"I don't sleep, there are too many nightmares on my head when my eyes are open, as for food I'm not hungry anymore"- The misery in his eyes suddenly gets hidden into a cold detached expression, he's burying his emotions behind a mask of hard determination, something their dead friend used to do all the time.
-"It wasn't your fault"- Tigress whispered from her place in the spirit world –"You had no way of knowing Fènghuáng had the Phoenix Strike, you had always managed to turn a battle around even when all odds were against you, no one could have predicted it would end this way"-
Shifu looked at Po with the same disdain he showed him when he first trained in the Jade Palace, before he had defeated Thai Lung –"Tigress gave her life for you, at the very least make her sacrifice worthwhile, show the universe that it wasn't the wrong warrior the one who died"-
Po had always been a bit too sensitive for his own good, she can see how his chi turns disarrayed and chaotic after hearing those words but his face is as stoic as a stone.
–"Father don't you see you're making things worse? Yes I gave my life for him but we all know he would have done the same in my place, just like the rest of the masters"- She yells at Shifu even when she knows he can't hear her, instead her father's blue eyes turn even angrier as he tells his former student
-"Feel free to wallow in your own misery panda, but disappearing in a ball of fire is not an appropriate punishment for Fènghuáng"- He gave the Dragon Warrior a red crystal –"This is the ruby of the eternal doom, instead of just turn him into ash use the force of your chi to imprison him inside this gem, he will be forever trapped in the fire of his own destruction. You cannot let him pass into the spirit world, I refuse to let him rest in the same place as my daughter, he deserves to burn for all of eternity"-
The Dragon Warrior took the gem with reverence, Tigress can see that the golden aura that was his chi turns black -"You have my word that by tomorrow evening he'll be trapped inside"-
So that is how the end of the world starts, with an alleged act of justice. But it is clear to her that in his search for revenge he will burn everything on his pass, sure the criminals will go first but as time passes nobody will be safe from the Dragon's fire.
Sighing in resignation Oogway closed the portal and all they could see is the beautiful golden waters of the lake.
-"This doesn't make sense! Why are they all acting that way? I understand they might be angry but they are all turning into psychopaths!"- Tigress fumed. Besides, she was looking forward to meet her murderer in the spirit world, it would be amusing to practice on him some of the battle tricks she had picked up in the afterlife.
-"Love is a very powerful force, the same love that kept all of you together through the good and the bad times is now fueling their rage. But there is another force here at play and that is chaos, the balance of the universe is broken and that's having a dire effect on not just the dragon warrior but the other masters as well"- Oogway conjured an image of the yin-yang that morphed into a circle of black fire
-"And how do we restore the balance?"-
-"The answer lies in the scroll of the universal forces, only the chosen one can truly understand it and unleash its powers."- Said scroll materialized in the turtle's claws.
-"So we have to send the scroll to Po"- She said determined
-"He is not the chosen one anymore Tigress, he has been taken by the dark side"- With a bow he ceremoniously handed the scroll to her
She couldn't believe what she was hearing, she was transported to the time she was almost chosen as the Dragon Warrior herself, but now no one would take this from her.
With shaking paws Tigress opens the scroll but all she sees is another symbol of the yin-yang, shrugging she wonders what can be so special in an image she'd seen thousands of times, but then she looks closer and notices something strange. The light side is inhabited by a dragon while the dark side is framed by a tiger, and then it all makes sense.
-"I am the chosen one as well! The Dragon warrior represents the yin-yang but there is also a tiger to oppose him!"- No wonder Oogway allowed her to believe she could be the chosen one all her life, in a way she had been. Sure the power of the Dragon could be a lot more fantastical and exuberant but without her earthly grounded subtlety he would spin out of control, no wonder that poor panda had lost his marbles.
Another vision of the future assaults her, she sees her friend consumed by the same flames he has just mastered, a malnourished sack of bones in white and black fur roaming the scorched earth with no more company than his own misery.
No! That is not gonna happen, if Po could come back from the spirit world then so can she.
Her feet touch the golden grass in a graceful caress, her body moves in fluid motions as rays of golden light emerge from her fingers, and eventually a pattern is traced around her in the shape of a mighty Tiger. Flower petals envelope her dissolving her form in the spirit world just so it can be reformed in the world of the living, soon she will be alive again.
-"Hang in there Po I'm coming"- She whispers into the wind, as she feels her body regain its physical living form she adds with a mischievous grin –"And when I do I'll kick your tail so hard, you'll wish I had stayed in the afterlife"-