Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Kung Fu Panda (c) to DreamWorks and whoever-else-made-it

Author's Note: Thanks all those who reviewed and favourited! :)

This chapter was done in a hurry so please excuse any mistakes. Constructive critisism is appreciated.

Chapter 2

We'd Think

21 years before…

Tai Lung had shot up to his feet immediately, running over to the ponds edge in matter of milliseconds, regardless of the slippery tiles and his own safety. He scanned the pond's black surface for a sign of where the cub was, but it was almost as if nothing had ever happened, there was no sign of her anywhere. The fish had disappeared, scared by the splash, the water was rippling, it had happened. Tai Lung plunged headfirst into the black water.

The cold hit him like a brick wall but all he could think of was saving the cub who had all but completely disappeared from sight. The pond was deep, it was part of the design, but Tai Lung knew how to swim and with all his training quickly reach the slime covered floor. He groped around trying to find the tiger, he could see nothing, not even the surface of the pond and he began to wonder whether he was touching the floor, it could just as easily be a wall, with no sense of up he had no idea where he was.

His paw brushed over something cold and slippery, a fish quickly beat away from him. He would have to go up soon, he was running out of oxygen, but as soon as that thought had occurred to him he found her. He swam up quickly, at least he hoped it was up, but when the surface broke he barely even noticed, too preoccupied with scrambling out of the icy cold water.

He looked down at the tiny bundle of fur he had fished out of the water, she wasn't moving, even breathing. Tai Lung began to panic, he may have been an expert in the field of Kung Fu but medical treatment was completely beyond him. So he did the only logical thing that could come to his mind, he held Tigress upside down.

She choked and spat out water, but then returned to being limp, but at least she was breathing. Tai Lung quickly turned her back around and began to run towards Jade Palace, if he was lucky Shifu would still be there, otherwise he wouldn't know where to search. Thankfully he had barely taken a step when his father appeared before him, having heard the commotion.

"Father! She fell in the pond! She wasn't breathing!" he said hurriedly. Shifu leapt up onto his shoulder and felt for Tigress's pulse.

"When did this happen?!" he asked.

"Just now! She slipped on the tiles and fell in!"

"We must get her to the village immediately!"


Back to present…

"Noodles up!" Tigress heard Po shout from the kitchen, she frowned and looked around at the others. Of course they didn't mind, maybe they hadn't even noticed, that Shifu hadn't been around all day. It wasn't that they didn't care, they all cared deeply, it was just something that generally went unnoticed; that and the fact that they all had Po's Noodle Special on the brain.

The panda lumbered in, once again showing amazing agility as he balanced six bowls on both arms. He swung them out onto the table, a bowl of noodle soup reached all of them without spilling a drop, except for Tigress, instead of a soup she recieved a bowl of rice. She looked over at Po, she had been looking forward to trying the soup which everyone had claimed was so good so why had she recieved a bowl of soggy rice?!

"That's specially for you Tigress, so you don't feel left out."

What was that supposed to mean? Hmpth. Maybe he thinks I don't eat noodles after the first time I refused to eat.

She shook it off though and began to eat, they all ate in silence; even Po surprisingly.

"Has anyone seen Master Shifu today?" asked Viper presently, "It's just that I haven't seen him since before Tai Lung was defeated."

"Me!"

Everyone turned to look at Po, who shrugged and in an absent minded way waved one arm in the direction he presumed Shifu was.

"Yeah, he's been meditating on that hill, next to that Peach Tree Of Sacred Wisdom Things...He's been there almost all day actually."

Once they had all finished eating Po ambled away to wash up the dishes with the help of Crane, meanwhle Monkey decided to just lie around the kitchen and talk to the others who then also chose to all stay, except Tigress who went outside to find Master Shifu. He indeed was on the hilltop, sitting down with his legs crossed. He had his eyes closed but he was obviously not at peace, his ears twitched like crazy as she began to approach, before eventually they rested back against his skull in his obvious distress and he sighed. She stood attentively beside him, waiting for him to speak first since this was obviously the most polite way to go about things when he was deliberately ignoring her.

"What is it Master Tigress?" he asked eventually, turning his head so that he faced her.

"Master Shifu, I, nor anyone else, could help but notice your absence. Is everything…alright?"

Shifu was silent, for a long time…almost Oogway long. Tigress almost considered heading back in, it seemed to her that the red panda wasn't ever going to bother responding.

"Yes Tigress, everything is fine. I just need some time…to find peace." he replied, and returned to his meditative pose, closing his eyes and, effectively himself, to the world.

Tigress took the hint and began to head back to the barracks, she knew what was troubling Shifu: Tai Lung. It was strange that even in death he could cause suffering.

"Hi Tigress!" shouted Po obnoxiously from the doorway, unaware of the inner turmoil some others may have been going through. "Did you find Shifu?"

She nodded and silently pushed her way past, into the hall.

"Is he okay? Ya know, I mean, he's not just got this on his agenda or something, meditating all day on some special occasion."

Tigress stopped and turned around to face Po. This really was getting too far, was Po really that stupid? It was Po's fault really, it had been he who had defeated Tai Lung, though who on Earth knew how. But no, the suffering had been there much longer, ever since Tai Lung had lost his temper and flown through like a storm fed flood, destroying everything in his path, Tigress could still remember the day it happened. She brought her head quickly out of the past as Po began to grow bored, and it occurred to her that the kitchen was a lot quieter than it had been when she had first came in, the others were listening in.

"Master Shifu is not alright, he is troubled, you should know why. He says he's trying to find inner peace, he has been trying all day."

"Inner peace? He told me yesterday he had peace, all the peace he needed I think."

"Then obviously you should pay more attention."


Tai Lung awoke with the sun, the previous night he had managed to pull himself up a tree to rest off of the ground. Once again he suffered the fear of the unknown as he wondered where he was and almost fell four meters in the process. He had eaten most of bread provided the day before, but having not eaten for so long had made him feel nauseous and he had had to stop.

He was careful as he climbed down, still aware of his own discomfort at moving, but as he slipped and decided to jump the last meter down he received a nasty shock. Imbedded in the tree was an axe, which most certainly had not been there the day before, surely the sound of something like that would have awoken him?

As he pondered on the idea he noticed that more provisions had been left behind but underneath the blade of the axe was yet another message:

'Get Out!'

Whomever it was that had left him here certainly did not like the fact that he still was, but one thing was for certain, it certainly wasn't the panda. Tai Lung looked out towards the town again and wondered, he did have a plan, but it was so far fetched, so laughable that it would almost be considered the idea of child.

Tai Lung stretched and walked around the tree several times just to check he hadn't missed anything, also to check that he was still in shape enough to walk. He had been unsure of how his freedom would have effected him after all these years, he had once even speculated that he would die.

The technique he had used all those years paralyzed, barely able to breath, never moving, never eating, it was called the Tortoise Technique, invented by Master Oogway. This technique allowed one to stay still in a place for days, even months without any side effects, but that was just the problem, it was not meant to be used for years; everyone had expected just him to die in the first year, but he hadn't.

The day past and evening arrived.

Tai Lung decided it was now time to act. He gathered together what he had been left, he had already torn through the bread and consumed it all, he hoped it would give him the strength, he was worried of his body turning traitor and giving up on him without warning.

He already was wearing the supplied clothes, they gave him some guess as to who had given them but it was not much. Whoever it had been who had owned them in the past had been even taller than Tai Lung, and broader shouldered. Both the trousers and waistcoat were loose on him, both an unattractive brown and grey colour. But they didn't neccesarily belong to whoever had passed them down.

He practiced a few moves, leaping and balancing, then he began to move slowly towards the valley of peace as night descended.


21 years before…

Tai Lung looked up from where he ate, he was in the Training Hall; no food was really supposed to be here but he had talked it over with his father and they had both agreed upon that it saved valuable training time. But it was almost noon and Tai Lung knew he would have to leave the hall once the other students arrived. But the students arriving early had not been what had caught his attention, no the students normally arrived late after all, it was Tigress; she was on the other side of the room, watching him from with her arms crossed.

She had recovered fully since she had fallen into the Koi Pond around a week before, but she had not said a word to him since, this was the first time since then that she had even tried approaching him.

"What'd you want?" he asked her, hoping she would leave.

Tigress narrowed her eyes and puffed her cheeks up again like when she had first met him, and stuck her tongue out; she didn't leave. Tai Lung ate in silence, ignoring her, mostly. Tigress didn't go away.

"Have you already eaten?" he eventually asked her, she nodded her head. Tai Lung returned to his silence, what else was there to say? He didn't know what cubs talked about, he had forgotten, she probably talked about fur dyes and make-up, something Tai Lung knew nothing of. "So what's your name? You can't really be called Tigress right?"

The cub deflated her cheeks and looked at him critically. "I'm Lin."

"Well I'm Tai Lung."

Tigress looked away.

"Greetings Master Shifu." Tai Lung heard distantly, the first of the students had arrived. He got up and made to move, Tigress instantly ran over to him. He stopped and looked down at her grumpy little face, she was hardly any taller than his knee, it was almost laughable, she was probably even younger than he had guessed she was.

"What?" he asked.

She sniffed and looked away from him, murmuring something under her breath, it sounded suspiciously like 'thank you', then she hugged him.


Back to present…

As the sun began to rise in a pink tinted sky a panther strode into the village square, he wore loose brown and grey clothing, though he walked proudly he seemed nervous; keeping to the shadows when he could, completely avoiding eye contact. The panther seemed unsure of where he wanted to go but walked with purpose, and though he looked at no one directly he continuously scanned the faces of those who passed to check they were not who they might be.

Very few people were out at this time, up at the Jade Palace, no doubt, the gong had already rung and the Masters were up. But the panther wasn't at the Jade Palace and didn't intend to go up there, at least not yet. It was mostly merchants out at this time, the short peaceful folk of the valley, geese, rabbits and hogs.

So it was rather surprising when he spotted a fellow feline standing nearby, she was a tall skinny thing and was obviously very ruffled at the time being, shouting at a group of unhappy looking hogs, they were all standing beside a rather large cart which looked like it had been in some minor explosion, crates of all sizes having fallen out the back, some of them split and broken.

"What do you mean you can't get the crates to the store!? Didn't you think ahead when I said: I'll need help unloading the cart! And by that I meant all of you were suppose to do it for me! I paid good money for this! Not to mention half of this stock is probably damaged!"

The tallest of the three finally braved up and replied, but he didn't even reach her shoulder and she obviously couldn't have cared less for what he had to say.

"Madam, please excuse us but this was all just a big a misunderstanding. There was a landslide further back up the track and the alternate route was a lot rougher than the usual one. We come weekly, and never before have you asked of our assistance. "

"Exactly! I sent message this time that I wanted assistance when I ordered these goods! Ben Zou and Cheng left!"

"Well what about Raaeng? I seem to record that he has helped out in the past."

"Raaeng is fast asleep and would not be pleased if I broke into his house just to wake him up to help me with all these crates!"

"Well, what do you suggest we do?" the hog asked, beginning to get a little ticked off.

The panther had now passed them and was now heading away up the street.

"Hey you!" The panther span around quickly, nervous.

"Yeah you." It was the clouded leopard. "You look strong. You looking for work?"

The panther shrugged, unsure of where she was going.

"Good. You're hired, help me unload these boxes and get them back to my store. Once you've finished we'll discuss payment."

The clouded leopard turned around and shooed the hogs away mockingly, but they left quickly anyway. She motioned at the crates which had been dumped on the ground.

"Come on now." She said. "I haven't got all day."

And that was beginning of Tai Lung's new life.


A/N: I know it may sound stupid but the panther is Tai Lung. He's dyed his fur, I'll explain more in the next update!

All these names are Chinese except for Raaeng which is Thai!

Lin - Gem

Xiu - Elegant

Raaeng - Strong

Ben Zou - Rush about

Cheng - Hasten