So I've had this in my head for ages now so I have finally decided to get it out there - the first chapter at least :D
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters or the movies, all rights to Dreamworks, though I suppose I do own some parts of the plot in this story and any OC's that appear.
"Before Tai Lung …"
The tiger stood in the doorway of which doors she had just thrown open with her usual look of disgust towards the panda who had to be nearing obesity – if not already there. His mere size alone was more than enough evidence for the leader of the Furious Five to believe he wasn't the true Dragon Warrior, that and his very obvious lack in knowledge let alone experience on the art of Kung Fu which she along with the rest of the five had so much respect for and took so much pride in, unlike this fat, disgusting excuse of an animal who only cared for noodles and treating the entire concept as though it were a baby's playtime.
The scattered kind gestures towards the panda from Viper, Crane, Mantis and Monkey hadn't gone unnoticed by Tigress in the last couple days – much to her disbelief. But she couldn't have cared less about him and she made her hatred for him bluntly obvious – even when he wasn't within her sights. Since the afternoon of when he quite literally fell to the earth from the sky; landing in a dusty, black and white heap on the ground, knocked out cold, Tigress had had nothing but downright disgust for him – her temper worsened to that of almost Tai Lung himself when she realized that Oogway had chosen him of all animals to be the legendary Dragon Warrior.
"Master ... Are you pointing at me?"
Tigress had asked this on the desperate hope that the ancient, respected tortoise had meant to point at her before that – that thing fell in front of her. But that hope crashed to the ground similar to that of the crash that just happened as Oogway declared the confused, muddleheaded panda as the Dragon Warrior - hell - even one of the bunnies watching from the side would have been a better choice than that.
Tigress had bounded furiously back to the Jade Palace in an impressive four massive leaps; the anger that had built up inside the tiger had been enough to kill so she had been somewhat glad the rest of the Five hadn't immediately followed after her. Tigress had nearly smashed the Seven Swinging Clubs of Instant Oblivion to smithereens in the training room and the Jade Tortoise of Wisdom was still rocking a solid ten minutes after she had harshly taken her anger out on it (she had been mildly surprised afterwards that no cracks had formed).
But that was only the beginning …
Since that day, three of the clubs had smashed under Tigress' iron-like fists, causing the Seven Swinging Clubs to temporarily become the Four Swinging Clubs until they got replaced, but that would not be for a while yet as everyone had other things on their minds; the big (and fat) main thing being the panda. While four of the Five had eventually shown kindness towards him, Tigress refused to show any sort of remorse towards the so called 'Dragon Warrior' ('Bah' she thought furiously).
Tonight however, as Tigress retired to her room for the night, she couldn't help overhearing something of a forbidden subject that had popped up in conversation in the Pandas room between Viper, Mantis and the Panda himself as they were attempting to show a friendlier side to him by performing acupuncture (Tigress didn't see the point in this when they had told her earlier – they were never going to find the right nerve points underneath all that fat).
"There was once a time when Master Shifu actually use to smile"
Tigress heard Vipers quiet gentle voice from the other side of the door as she walked back to her room from yet another merciless attack on the training room (She had to get control of her anger one of these days; four clubs were now a mere three) and reluctantly slowed her pace past the door to listen in.
"No" The Pandas disbelieving voice made her ears want to bleed but she stood there regardless; knowing deep down where the conversation was sooner or later going to lead.
"Yes" Mantis' voice – very low for a creature his size – piped up from the other side.
"But that was before …"
Viper trailed off and Tigress knew why. This subject had been strictly forbidden for discussion by Master Shifu since the day the Five were formed and though he had ordered this to everyone, he had aimed subtly yet specifically in her direction the day he gave the order out, Tigress understood that also but the other four hadn't even noticed.
"Before what?"
Tigress had already known the Panda would ask – why wouldn't he? He was nosey about the littlest of things; the Panda had asked Master Shifu about nearly everything that anyone could possibly think of about the Jade Palace since his training began (if 'training' was what you wanted to call it). They could barely get through two minutes without him piping up with a question about Shifu or the Palace or even about the Five. Tigress had had to severely restrain herself from beating his pea-brain head to a pulp every time he opened his big mouth. But this subject …
Tigress found that she couldn't let Viper or Mantis become the orator of this conversation so before either of them could answer the Pandas latest question; she banged open the doors to his room and, for once, answered it herself.
"Before Tai Lung"
The name dripped off of her tongue like poison as her blazing orange eyes met the Panda's green ones. She hated to admit it, but despite the humiliating size of the Panda – what was his name? – Po, he did have very nice eyes; but she was sooner going to be head crushed by the clubs than say that out loud to him; she was never going to allow him the privilege of a compliment from her – ever.
The space had gone deadly quiet for a second. Viper looked as though her huge eyes were going to fall out of her tiny little head at the sight of Tigress and Po was looking at her as if she had just smashed the doors down to kindling (which she supposed, if she'd had banged any harder on the doors, she just might have).
"Uh Yeah, we're not really supposed to talk about him" Cranes tall shadow appeared from the room over as his voice projected into the room.
"Well, if he's going to stay here … he should know" Tigress wanted to kick herself now for very reluctantly accepting that no matter what anyone in the Jade Palace tried to throw on the Panda, he wasn't going to give up or leave (Possibly another very small factor that both infuriated and mildly impressed her – and also another thing she was never going to let past her lips).
"Guys, Guys I know about Tai Lung …"
He knew about Tai Lung … He. Knew. About. Tai Lung. The Panda's words stuck to Tigress' brain like a dozen leeches and the anger inside her filled her soul. How dare he claim to know about the villainous Snow Leopard and the crimes he committed? How dare he mumble in a few short words what he thought he knew about Shifu's former student and adoptive son? How dare he? He didn't know. No one knew; not even the rest of the Five. No one knew the true story except herself!
Tigress stopped and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She was now standing right in front of Po who had, to her slight pleasure, cowered down from her eyes as if terrified she may laser him with her glare.
Tigress shook her head and discarded her small moment of private enjoyment before starting the story that everyone in the room (sans Po) knew.
"He wasn't just a student …
"Shifu found him as cub … and he raised him as his son …" Tigress paused a few times to remember the story everyone else knew carefully so she didn't accidentally let slip the story that was locked up behind the bars of her mind and her mind alone.
"And when the boy showed talent in Kung Fu … Shifu trained him … Believed in him … He told him he was destined for greatness …"
Tigress paused again, making it seem as though she was thinking carefully about the story when in truth, she had started fighting inside to keep her voice from wobbling, even in the slightest. Once she had forcefully regained composure, she continued "… It was never enough for Tai Lung … he wanted the Dragon Scroll … but Oogway saw darkness in his heart at refused."
Knowing that the next bit of the story was the hardest bit to say, Tigress took a couple of deep breaths before continuing on.
"Outraged, Tai Lung laid waste to the valley … He tried to take the Scroll by force … and Shifu had to destroy what he had created …
"But how could he …" Tigress stopped abruptly as her voice cracked ever so slightly on the last word. She growled low to cover it up should anyone have heard it; Monkey and Crane had open the door slightly from the room over and were listening into the story they all knew. When Tigress was absolutely certain no one had heard her uninvited flicker of emotion she went on.
"When Shifu was defeated … it was Oogway who had to use the nerve attack to stop him…"
Tigress paused at the heart breaking memories of that day … the day no one knew she had been there to witness … as a young, innocent tiger cub.
"Shifu loved Tai Lung like he had never loved anyone before … or since."
Tigress finished the story to greet the dead air that followed – the story everyone in the room was now aware of, including the Panda. Tigress sighed silently, very nearly letting the emotions of her untold story astray. Taking a sharp intake of breath, she brought her eyes back from the memories to her normal glare on the Panda and growled "And now … he has a chance to make things right … to train the true Dragon Warrior."
Her next sentence, while it infuriated her to say it, also gave her quite an amount of pleasure to say it out loud to him "And he stuck with you; a big, fat panda who treats it like a joke."
Some part of the tiger half hoped that maybe the story would potentially scare the Panda into making a run for it, or even make him appreciate the title of the Dragon Warrior that he had ridiculously been given, however both those hopes hit rock bottom when he abruptly appeared to have lost all control of his facial nerves and pulled the most stupid face at her.
That was when the tiger exploded.
"THAT IS IT!"
She threw her clawed paw back to strike him down; drowning the tiny part of her brain that was yelling out to her that Master Shifu would personally kill her himself if she did this – at this point however, her anger overtook her mind by quite a margin. It was just in time however that Mantis threw himself in front of Po's wind-changed looking face, looking apologetic.
"WAIT!" He yelled, stopping Tigress in the nick of time from clawing the Pandas face to shreds as she so badly wanted to do.
"My fault, I accidentally tweaked his facial nerve." Mantis explained hurriedly.
So he really had lost control of the facial nerve. Truthfully, Tigress could hardly have cared about what had happened and she worked hard not to express it – or gag – as the Panda fell forward; exposing a back simply covered in pins. In amongst the anger, a flicker of bewilderment crossed her face at Mantis as he poked gently at the seemingly paralyzed 'Dragon Warrior'.
"And may also have stopped his heart" Mantis concluded worriedly.
Tigress didn't see a bad side to that last sentence and it was very tempting to point out that it made no difference now if she turned his face into shreds of paper or not but she held her tongue – with difficulty as Mantis darted around pulling all the pins out of the pandas back. Monkey and Crane; now that the story had come to an end had gone back to the privacy of their own rooms and Tigress knew she had to do the same before she lost control – again.
Without so much as a 'goodnight' to the other two who stayed in to take care of the temporarily demented panda, she stomped out through the door and slammed them shut with the same amount of power she had used to bang them open half an hour earlier. Opening the doors to her own room, she slipped inside and closed it quickly – before letting her anger subside into sadness; sliding down the door to plop down on the floor, letting her head fall into her paws.
'I know about Tai Lung …'
No. No he didn't. He didn't know, even after the story she had told. He didn't know. The rest of the Five didn't know; Tigress had trusted no one with the true forbidden story that was locked in the furthest corner of her mind, never to be opened again. The story only she knew ...
No one knew except her about the big burly Snow Leopard whom the little tiger cub; fresh out of the orphanage had met for the first time when she had sneaked into the training room where Shifu had forbade her from entering until she was a little older to find out exactly what that banging was that kept constantly coming from the mysterious room most of the day and nearly half the night...
From behind one of the pillars which concealed her tiny form nicely, the tiger cub watched; mesmerized by the Snow Leopard as he fought against the dozens of tree trunk-like poles covered in hard metal knobs (Wooden Warriors as she later came to call them) with sharp kicks and punches. She had never been more intrigued at all before in her short life. She knew she shouldn't be in here. Heaven knew what Master Shifu would do if he found out she was in the one place he had specifically told her not to go.
She was thrown out of that thought when the older feline smashed through one of the poles with what what looked like next to no effort. He straightened himself up and got ready to start up again, showing no signs of tiredness or fatigue at all. Tigress moved a little bit further round the pillar so she could get a better look, but she didn't take into account what may or may not give her away in here. She only figured that out when he turned and looked right at her.
Orange eyes met orange eyes for a mere moment before the tiger cub threw her little body back against the pillar; breathing hard. Had he seen her?
It was a minute of silence that felt like an eternity; the cub's eyes were full of fear and her breathing was rapidly turning into hard panting; was he going to investigate? Find her? Hurt her? … Kill her? (Her tiny tiger cub mind could be a bit over-dramatic at times).
Then she heard a voice. It wasn't angry or nasty as such, at least it didn't sound that way. It sounded more curious than anything.
"I know you're there" It was a quiet tone, so that was a good start. It was also laced with what sounded like he could be smiling or smirking, whichever one it was it didn't sound so bad.
"Come on out … I ain't going to hurt you."