Fragments
A figure watched them walk away with a sad look plastered on it's face. "I'm sorry Tigress...Crane...Mantis, I didn't mean for you to get in the way". The figure took one more look sighed and then left. His revenge would have to come at a later date.
XXXXXXX
It took them a while but Shifu, Po and the Five eventually made it back into the Valley of Peace. Tigress glued herself to Po all the way back, every time he stumbled she was there to steady him, every time he coughed she rubbed his back soothingly. Honestly Po was enjoying the attention, but even he had to admit she was being overprotective.
When they got into the hall Shifu walked over to the Moon Pool and gazed into his reflection, a tired look fell over his face and he sighed regretfully. Po and the five lined up, Tigress took her place by Po and kept one eye fixed on him just in case something were to happen.
Eventually Shifu turned to face his students, the stone was in his hand and his face was unreadable. "I lied to you all, I said I was going to dispose of this", he held the stone up to indicate what he was talking about.
Tigress growled "Why? We were all almost killed by it. Po was also taken from us because of that stone". Po put a paw on her shoulder to calm her down, she backed off a bit but didn't stop snarling at Shifu.
Shifu cast a glance towards Po, "If I hadn't Tigress then Po wouldn't be standing here right now would he? You'd of lost him all over again". He pointed at Crane "Crane would've lost his eyesight...for good! And Mantis wouldn't have been able to walk here by himself. Yes it was wrong to lie to you all but the stone has the ability to heal any wound and...".
Shifu looked down shamefully "I don't want to lose another student...not again". Tigress softened her glare slightly but she was still angry at being lied to. Viper spoke up "Master, where have you been keeping it?"
Shifu's vulnerability was swiftly covered up again by a stone face, "In a steel box in my room, no one else knew about it except me".
Crane decided to change the subject, "So who set that trap? That must of taken days of planning, it was lucky he or she didn't consider a small magical stone otherwise today would've gone a lot worse". Crane's attempt at humor fell on deaf ears.
"Hang on a minute" said Monkey, "The note was addressed specifically to Po right?". Shifu nodded "What are you getting at Master Monkey?". "Well what if they were just going after Po? I mean both he and the rest of us have plenty of enemies that would try something like this".
Mantis shook his head "I don't think people like Temutai, Taotie or Fung have either the gall or the brains to even try something like this, no this has got to be someone that really wants you dead Po". Po chuckled nervously "Yeah alright Mantis calm it down a bit there, you're starting to scare me".
Suddenly the stone began to crack and give off a bright light, Shifu gasped and dropped it. It hit the floor and shattered on impact. "No!" shouted Shifu, he reached down to it. The stone had just become dust.
"Why did it do that Shifu? I thought it was supposed to be made of people's souls, shouldn't that make it indestructible" asked Crane. Shifu shook his head "According to legend it is, the stone's structure must be compromised. If that's true then that mea-". He stopped suddenly in the middle of his sentence.
"Means what?" asked Tigress, Shifu frowned at her "It means one of the souls must of escaped beforehand, it must of been weakened enough so that when I used it earlier it must of been too much for it to handle".
Po gasped "So now we have no way of healing ourselves if we get injured like this again". Monkey gave a nonchalant wave of the hand "Don't worry Po, we did just fine without it before".
"Yes we did, but it appears our enemy is willing to do anything to kill us this time" said Shifu gravely. An eerie silence fell over the group, "So what do we do?" asked Po innocently. "We will train harder and watch our backs constantly" said Tigress confidently. Po smirked "There she is, the old Tigress".
She turned to Po, "And you are not going anywhere without me panda, is that understood?". "Tigressss, you're embarrassing me" whined Po as a child would say to their mother.
"No buts Po, if someone wants to get you then they're going to have to go through me" she said proudly.
Mantis snickered "Geez Tigress you're not his mom", the others laughed. Shifu observed the scene seriously "This is the calm before the storm" he thought solemnly.
During their conversation night had fallen, Po yawned. "It is getting late, off to bed students we resume training in the morning" ordered Shifu.
They all nodded, bowed and made their way to the barracks to get a good nights sleep. When they got there everyone went to their rooms, Po and Tigress stood outside their respective rooms ready to wish each other a good night. "What a day huh" said Po nervously.
Tigress nodded silently, "Well...night then" Po went to enter his room but Tigress paw closed the door. "Hey Tigress! What are you doing?" he asked.
"You're not going in your room Po, you'll be defenseless in there". Tigress blushed "You can sleep in my bed...with me". Po chuckled "Why are you embarrassed Tigress?, I've slept in your room before, in fact it's where I was this morning".
She chuckled nervously "I know...I guess I'm still not used to asking", she quickly grabbed his paw and lead him inside to her room. The truth was as well as wanting to keep an eye on Po, Tigress just loved the feeling of sleeping next to him and the sensation of waking up every morning with him by her side.
They got into bed with each other and quickly fell asleep due to the comfort.
XXXXXXX
An explosion came from somewhere in the building, Tigress and Po felt the building crumble around the. But this time before he could act Tigress was crushed underneath some rubble. "NOOO!" he yelled, he ran over and started to frantically pull away rubble in the desperate hope that she might still be alive.
He lifted the last piece of rubble away to discover that there was no Tigress underneath it, he gasped when he saw a very familiar looking explosive sitting on the floor.
It suddenly went off in Po's face "NOOOO-"
Po woke up with a jolt, he panted heavily. HE looked at his hands and checked his body just in case some of him was missing. He check Tigress to make sure she was fine, Tigress was purring happily, completely oblivious to the nightmare Po had just had.
"It was just a dream" he thought deliriously "But it felt so real".
He looked at Tigress and frowned to himself. "I can't ever let that happen, I have to be stronger to protect my family, and my love". Po got up out of the bed and left the room.
He made his was quietly to the training hall, he set up a wooden dummy and began to train long into the night.
What does this mean? Po is having horrible flashbacks and is trying to desperately improve himself because he thinks he isn't enough. Po and the Furious Five have a new deadly enemy to deal with and they have found out Shifu is willing to lie to them in order to win. This will continue in Rage of the Ifrit.
