A/N: Here I am! Finally! Did you miss me? Just a tiny bit?

I know, I know. Shadows Of The Past will be updated soon. I will start work on it now!

I still don't own Kung Fu Panda. Sigh… I hate disclaimers. You repeat yourself all over again.

The Search For Golden Times, The Cold Hopelessness

"Let's see how tough you are now, tiger."

"Well, let go of me and I promise I'll show you my strength by beating you two."

"Do you think we are dumb?"

"You look like you don't have much brain, so yeah."

"Did the master say anything 'bout gagging him?"

The door swung open, and finally the Kung Fu warriors could see who there was the owners of the voices. In came two bears holding a squirming Enlai. Chains rattling, the warriors got up to meet them.

"Oh, see. Visitors," Matins murmured sarcastically. He, of course, wasn't chained, but was inside a little cage that was hanging from the ceiling. "How nice to join us."

The guards forced Enlai to the wall and chained him just like the others. "We should say thanks from Master Xi-Wang. He was really glad for your deal."

"Then tell him that when I comes out I'll make sure that he next time will remember to keep his promises," Enlai told him, both humor and threats in his voice.

"We'll see about that, Kitty Cat." Then the guards left, leaving the warriors alone.

All of them turned to stare at Enlai who was nervously clutching his chained paws. "So what's your explanation, Kitty Cat?" Monkey asked him, on a way nearly growling.

"I now prefer Stripes," the tiger muttered under his breath but then he looked up to meet his friends' eyes, "Xi-Wang and I made a deal."

"We have figured that out some time ago," Crane told him, lifting his leg so Enlai could hear the chain's rattling.

But before the male tiger could say a word, Viper slithered towards him, concern visible in her azure eyes, "Where is Tigress?"

"In another cell." Enlai would have said more but again the snake was quicker than him.

"Is she hurt? Has Xi-Wang done anything to her?"

Enlai sighed deeply, "No yet. But…" He paused and bit his lip for a moment.

"Spit it out, Stripes! You owe us, you know!"

"Mantis is right. You totally misused the skills of cooking! Putting sleep provoking herbs in the soup, that's just not right! You'll never get customers to buy that!" Po exclaimed, casing weird looks from his friends.

Viper shook her head, "So you sedated us. But why?"

"I was stupid enough to trust Xi-Wang. He promised that is I brought you guys here he wouldn't kill Tigress."

"But shouldn't Tigress fight Xi-Wang," Crane asked.

"If she fights him then she'll die. I can't let that happen."

"Don't we forget that it's Tigress we are talking about? I mean, she can defeat every bandit she meets," Po pointed out, thinking about his tiger friend.

Enlai tugged the chain, though nothing happened, "Xi-Wang isn't just a simple bandit. He is stronger than you think and he won't hesitate with cheating. Tigress would not stand a chance."

"So you gave her to the enemy? Sorry, but I don't exactly follow you there," Monkey snickered.

"What could I do? Let her go to directly towards her death or take the little hope Xi-Wang gave me by giving me his promise? I can't let her die, so I had no other choice."

"You trusted Xi-Wang? That's just stupid," Mantis told them from his cage, looking down at them.

The male tiger threw up his chained paws, "I know, I know! But I had to do something! I knew that she would hate a life in chains, but I can't watch her die."

Po put his paw on the tiger's shoulder, "You tried to do the right thing; you just totally screwed the up."

Enlai glared at him, unsure if the panda was trying to help him or not.

"So how is Tigress handling it?" Crane asked, thinking about the feline's temper.

Making a grimace, Enlai turned to him, "I'll be surprise if she ever talks to me again. I mean except sneers and growls."

"She must be dealing with a broken heart. You know, with you kissing her and…" Po froze when he realized what he had done, "I didn't say that! You all heard wrong! I said, 'missing her'! Like when you are gone from someone and…"

"You kissed her?" The others had all turned to Enlai and stared at him with shocked expressions.

Enlai face-palmed and look at Po, "You know that Tigress is going to murder you know, right?"

"Says the person that is going to be killed by Master Shifu. Actually, when I think about, we are all going to be killed if Xi-Wang wants it!" Mantis exclaimed, grabbing the bars in his cage.

Viper shook her head, "Back to the subject; you kissed Tigress?"

Enlai's cheeks were now visible red, "Well, yes. But…"

"And she didn't punch you?" Crane asked, stunned over the fact that Tigress had been kissed.

"She did punch Po, but I got unscratched from it."

"That's a surprise… She didn't even kick? Not even a tiny bit?"

"Mantis!" Viper hissed, but spoke in a softer voice when she had turned to the male tiger, "Enlai, this is amazing!" She paused for a moment when she suddenly realized something. "Or it would have been if you hadn't betrayed her. She must be heartbroken."

"She definitely doesn't want to see me again." Enlai sighed loudly, "What should I do?"

"The question is 'what can you do'? Right now you are stuck here and I doubt that Tigress can do anything in the situation she is in now," Crane told them, his eyes worried for his friends' safety.

"Then what can we do?" Viper asked, hoping for an answer. She became disappointed.

Enlai sighed again, "I don't know. Everything I do ends up wrong. We are trapped, Tigress is in a cell alone and Xi-Wang will soon kill her. How can this get any worse?"

"It could rain," Mantis suggested only getting irritated looks.

"We are indoors, so does it matters?" Enlai growled softly.

Mantis shrugged, "Just trying to lift the mood."

"Well, it doesn't work!"

"Boys, the last thing we need right now is fights so knock it off," Viper hissed, causing them all to be quiet.

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" They all froze at Crane's words and sure enough they could all hear the sound of footsteps nearing them. Suddenly the door slammed open and in came Tigress squirming in the grasp of the guards. They were having a hard time with her, and one of them had to hold a knife in front of her as a sign for her to stand still. Finally they reached the wall and found an empty spot to chain her. Smart enough, it was the place furthest away from Enlai. Looked like the guards didn't want a fight between the two felines.

Receiving a growl from Tigress the guards left the room and the warriors were alone again. "Tigress!" Viper exclaimed and the chain only allowed her to lay the tip of her tail on the tiger's arm, "Are you okay?"

"I am fine, Viper. And you?"

"We're fine too. Po's just hungry, but that's that."

Finally Tigress turned to Enlai who had been rubbing his thumbs nervously. "So how did your plan go?" she asked sarcastically, the anger visible in her eyes.

"Sorry," Enlai muttered, "I didn't know that Xi-Wang would…"

"You didn't know? Honestly, Enlai, you thought that he would keep his promise? He broke his promise to Jie, why wouldn't he do the same to you?"

"I don't care about Jie!" Enlai hissed, "He doesn't matter."

"If you had listened to him then you would have known more about how Xi-Wand deals with promises. But instead you kept acting like a fool and now we are all here thanks to you."

"You two, stop it," Viper hissed and the felines turned to glare at her, "Fighting won't help."

"Keep sitting here won't help. Xi-Wang's men are moving towards the Valley of Peace to defeat Master Shifu while you are rotting up in here."

"Wait, what about you?" Po asked, finding the mistake in her sentence. Well, he hoped that it was a mistake.

Tigress tried not to sigh. She would try not to make them freak out. Though, she doubted that they would take it well. "Xi-Wang sent me down here so I could see you before he will complete his mission. He said it was a gift to me as a sign of his kindness."

"Complete his mission? You mean… Tigress, we can't let him do that to you!" Po exclaimed, the others staring at them in shock as they realized what she had said.

"Then what do you suggest? Because of him," she pointed blaming at Enlai, "we are all stuck here."

"Tigress, I didn't mean this to happen. I wanted everything different than this," Enlai whispered, trying to get closer to her but the chain held him back.

"I don't want you to fix anything. I don't want you to think that you should do it and I don't want you to try. I don't need you to protect me, Enlai, so stay away," Tigress hissed at him.

Enlai's face shifted from showing pain to anger, "Fine! Be angry! I just tried to help you but you obviously don't care! Do you know why I kissed you back there? Because I knew that you probably wouldn't forgive me after this and I wanted to show you that I love you." He paused and took in some air to calm himself. Then he spoke in a softer voice, "But you don't believe me, do you?"

Tigress looked at him, her face blank, but then gave him a final snarl. She turned around to sit in the corner with her back turned to everybody else. Enlai growled for himself, "Alright, I give up!"

Viper gave Tigress' back a worried look, but then turned to Enlai, "Can't you try and talk to her again?"

"I am not going to touch hot iron while it can burn me," Enlai muttered darkly.

"Enlai, you know that Tigress doesn't mean it. She is just hurt right now and then she says stupid things," the snake whispered, "I really think you should…"

"I should not do anything. Didn't you hear what Tigress said?"

"Do you want to help her or not?" Viper hissed, but when she got no answer she sighed and slithered away from the male tiger. Enlai shortly glanced at Tigress' back, but then shook her head and returned to stare at the wall.


Something was wrong. Master Shifu knew it and he was worried. His student should have reached Xi-Wang by now. Everything should be fine… Or that was what he had thought until he had woken up this morning to the sound of Tigress' roar. Even though she was far away Shifu was sure that it had been her. It was a sign, a sign that told him that something had happened.

Shifu was torn, a part of him wanted to run towards Xi-Wang as fast as he could, another part told him that he must stay at the Jade Palace. So far the second part had won. Now he was awaiting more information, from what or who he didn't know.

When Zeng finally arrived, the red panda wasn't surprised.

"Master Shifu!" the goose called and landed in front of the master. "An army has left the Dragon City and they are coming towards the Valley of Peace!"

Grabbing his staff harder, Shifu thought the situation over. If the Elders were planning to get Tigress by force then there wouldn't go long time before the Shadow Warriors would do the same. Then two armies would be marching towards the Jade Palace….

In that moment they heard an unmistakable sound. The sound of an arrow hitting is target. Zeng let out a chocked scram while Shifu hurried to the front gate of the palace. An arrow had pierced into the wood of the gate with a message tacked to it.

With his big ears listening for any signs of the attacker, Shifu grabbed the message and started reading it.

Grandmaster Shifu,

Your students' plan of defeating me has failed. They are now captured all thanks to a spy of mine. If you want to save them then you are free to try, but I will warn you with saying that you will too be defeated.

I suggest you to surrender yourself, if not you will have to face my army. Your choice.

Your students, with the exception of Master Tigress, will remain unhurt. Unfortunately, my niece's death can't be avoided as it would be a threat to my power. Before you get too confused I will tell you that I am indeed Jiao-Long's brother. Funny how one single family can get so complicated?

-Master Xi-Wang

In long time Shifu just stared at the letter, Zhen anxiously waiting for him to say something. "What should we do, Master Shifu?"

But the red panda was unable to find an answer.


Time passed on and the chained warriors sat in silence. None of them dared to speak in fear of making the two tigers angry. Well, angrier than they already was. Tigress hadn't moved from her corner, and now her friends were even more worried. If this was their last time with her then they wouldn't spend it with being quiet.

Tigress just waited for something to happen. How long time had she left with her friends? Minutes? Hours? Maybe, if she was lucky, she would get a day. But that was all up to Xi-Wang. He would decide when it was the right time to kill her.

Death. It was something Tigress always had feared. Not her own, but the deaths of those she cared about. She would gladly give her life for her friends and master. But right now, knowing that her own dead was coming closer and closer, she started to feel nervous. It was not like she wanted to die; she had a lot of things that she hadn't done yet.

Now Xi-Wang was playing with her, testing how she would react while waiting. Tigress didn't know his plans fully, but one thing was sure; she had to stop him. But how? This cell was built exactly like the one she had been in before; chains, bars and a solid door was blocking her way to freedom.

Tigress briefly opened her mouth to say something, but regretted it. In this little room everyone would hear what she said. That meant that he would hear it. Yes, she had heard when Viper had talked to him. But she didn't care. The only thing that she understood was that it was his fault that they had ended in this situation. And she knew that it hadn't been an accident. He had given them to Xi-Wang while being so foolish to believe that the leopard would keep his promise. What an idiot.

The room's silent was destroyed by the sound of footsteps. Viper let out a gasp and tried to get to Tigress, but the tiger was sitting too far away. "Tigress," it nearly came out as a sob from the snake's mouth. Though, the feline didn't as much as move.

Knowing that someone would come and take their friend away from them Po, Viper, Monkey and Crane stood up to face Xi-Wang when he entered the room. Mantis, who couldn't do much in his cage, glared daggers at the still closed door.

Tigress flexed her claws, trying to control her emotions. "Do something!" her mind was screaming at her, but she couldn't as much as look back to meet her friends. Her heart was pounding as she realized that now was the time.

"Say something!" her mind shouted again, but her tongue felt like it was too swollen to form the words. But her mind wasn't finished, "Are you just going to let Xi-Wang win?" No, she wouldn't. But she just didn't know how to stop him.

The door cracked when it was open, and a voice called her name, "Master Tigress?"


A/N: And finally done! Sigh, that was hard. Let's hope that homework will keep some distance from me now (yeah, right! Like that would happen). Anyways, hope you liked it ;)

Tak fordi du læste min historie og vær sød at efterlade en kommentar. You didn't understand that, huh? Then let's take it on English; Thanks for reading my story and please leave a review.