Well, you all probably thought I had stopped writing, but I haven't! I'm just pretty much the most laziest person in the world, but I've started writing again and I'm going to start reviewing again as well.

So I hope you like the latest installment (and sorry about the length of the chapter I got carried away) and please leave a review. Thank you for all your support!

-wolfgang

Chapter 7: The Warriors Tale

"It is better to burn out than fade away."

-Kurt Cobain

It took only a few tedious moments for her to get help from the palace staff, who swiftly rushed Po to the medical wing, but it felt like a lifetime to Master Tigress, who was now anxiously waiting by Po's side in his room.

He wasn't critically injured, but he did have a small concussion and several cuts bruises were painted up and down his body.

Po woke after only a few tense minutes and slowly opened his eyes, but he then seemed to drift off to slumber again. Tigress rushed to his side and looked at him, noticing his eyes flutter.

"Po? Po, wake up." She said gently, giving him a small nudge in the shoulder.

Po suddenly snapped his eyes wide open.

"Xia! She- she's coming to kill us, and she has an army, and Shu, and-"

But Po was immediately interrupted from his mindless blathering as he found himself suddenly in the warm, yet almost painfully crushing embrace of his wife, as she pounced on his belly. Tigress buried her face deep in his chest, purring gently. Po immediately relaxed, now temporarily content with being reunited with the girl that he had been forced to abandon weeks ago. She pulled back after a few minutes, only to lean in again and press her lips against his in a heated, passionate kiss.

Just at that moment, Shifu walked in.

"Is he alright? I hope that he's not- oh…" He trailed off, finding himself posed in the middle of an emotionally charged embrace between the two masters. Luckily neither of the two lovers noticed their master's entrance, and kept on displaying their affection for one another.

Shifu smiled to himself, and carefully stepped back out of the room.

Yes, Po's doing just fine. The red panda thought to himself.

Finally, everything's back to normal.

Little did he know, a heavily equipped army was about 200 miles out from the Valley of Peace, and they were closing distance fast…

"Faster! We are supposed to arrive at the valley in 5 days!" Xia screamed at her troops, "And once there, you are to destroy everything in sight. Kill the people, loot the houses, burn the crops. Leave nothing untouched. But, you leave the Tiger to me. We have a score to settle…"

Meanwhile back in Po's room…

Tigress finally pulled back from the kiss, practically gasping for air, and she then slowly got off the panda, hoping that she hadn't hurt him too bad when she had jumped on top of him.

"Po, what happened?" Tigress asked quietly, "We thought you were…" But the fearless master Tigress was cut off by her own choking down of her tears, but yet she elicited no tears, as she didn't want to give the impression that she was weak.

"Well, it's kinda a long story. But, go get the five and I'll tell you all what happened."

Within 5 minutes, the rest of the five, Tigress, and Shifu were all packed into Po's room. After all of the five got over their overwhelming happiness for their 'leaders' return, they all settled down and became quiet. All eyes were on Po, not knowing what to expect from the tale Po was about to tell.

"Alright panda, tell us what happened" Shifu said.

"Ok, well I'm a little fuzzy on the details," Po said, "but I think it went something like this..."

Po's Flashback (third person):

Po ran through the crowded streets of the village, his heart now pumping with adrenaline. He could hear the voices of Xia's men all around him. Their shouts and taunts echoed off the walls of shops, leaving Po utterly confused as to where they could be. He kept ducking in and out of alleyways and side streets, but the chorus of murmurs seemed to follow him.

Suddenly, all grew quiet on the streets, masking the village in an eerie silence. Po came to a standstill and looked around, but saw no sign of any threat. He kept walking along the streets, with an ever growing suspicion that the enemy knew right where he was.

Sure enough, the next thing he knew he was being flanked on all sides by dozens upon dozens of enemies. They were simply too much for him, slowly getting the best of him even with his advanced Kung Fu training. They just kept coming, clawing and slashing at Po with the clear intent to kill him. Po was tackled to the ground and was now being torn apart bit by bit.

But right as he thought he was done for; someone whistled at the troops and yelled,

"We need him alive for Empress Xia! Take the panda to the jail and make sure he's locked up tight!"

Disappointedly, the soldiers slowly got themselves untangled from the fray surrounding Po, and put him in chains. They escorted him to the local jail, and since Po couldn't even walk, they had to painstakingly carry him there (which was not an easy task, seeing as Po wasn't the lightest)

So, he was thrown in a tiny cell, and shackled to the wall. There, he sat.

He waited for hours until the jail door slowly sighed open, revealing the jet black form of Shu silhouetted against the blinding light of the outside world. She walked up to his cell and sneered.

"Look at you panda, all chained up and helpless. How pathetic!" She bantered. "Well, you'll be happy to know that Xia is actually on her way here right now! She'll be here in a week. In the meantime, I'm in charge of 'babysitting' you, so I made sure that you're chained up nice and snug. There are guards everywhere. I know you can't take all of them on your own, so don't even think about breaking out. Alright?"

Po didn't respond to the question, as he knew that he couldn't even slip the shackles anyway, but he didn't want her to know how helpless he really was.

"You're a monster, you know that?" Po spat at her.

"Good, I'm glad you think so!" Shu replied sarcastically.

"Come on, I know you're better than that Shu. You don't have to listen to Xia, she's not in control of you!"

"Panda, if you only knew the half of it…" The leopard said with a regretful expression. "But, I live to serve the Empress now, and there's nothing you can do to change that. Have fun, because these may well be the last few days of your life."

And on that note, she turned and left Po in that cell, and there he remained for a week, never to see Shu again. He was fed scarcely, (which led to a lot of weight loss on his part) and he only got to see the light of the sun whenever the guards had to open the doors to give him meals.

A week passed by in what seemed to be a years' time, and it finally came time for Xia to confront the Dragon Warrior once again. Po knew that it was time as well, and he knew that any second that door would open and Xia would be standing there, looking at him with that threatening gleam in her eye. Sure enough, as the sun was setting over the arctic tundra on that seventh day, the familiar creak of the door resonated through the small jail, shaking Po from his trace-like state.

And there, looking as devious as ever, stood one of the most formidable opponents Po had ever known. She didn't say a single word as she walked up to his cell and took out a small key. She unlocked the door and stepped in. She then locked the door behind her, which was a remarkably impudent act on her part.

Xia now stood only a foot away from Po, eyeing him with a mixture of interest and disgust.

"You've caused me a lot of trouble Dragon Warrior, as I had to come all the way out here to meet you." She finally said, her voice was bone chilling as she spoke.

"Why?" Po asked, "Why let me live? You could've easily had me killed by now, but you spared me."

"Because…" She said, her tone now relaxing and calm. "I had to give you this…"

And the next thing Po knew, Xia had her lips planted on his…

Everyone's mouth dropped at precisely that moment, as chaos erupted in the room around Po. Everyone started talking at once, and Monkey started laughing as hard as he could. All of the side conversations were immediately stopped however by a very angry feline, who roared,

"What? She- she kissed you? How could you?!"

"Tigress please!" Shifu said, now interrupting her, "Control yourself!"

"I'm-I'm sorry master…" She said, getting the better of her rage.

"Tigress, I honestly couldn't help it. I was chained up. There wasn't much I could do!" Po pleaded.

Tigress sighed and collected herself once again.

"I know, I know it's just that if I ever get my hands on Xia, she's going to wish that she had never touched you."

Po gulped, knowing that the feline wasn't bluffing. He almost felt bad for Xia.

"Alright so can I continue now?" Po asked, looking around at the group, who were still whispering amongst themselves.

He received several nods as permission to continue, so he did.

So, there Xia was, kissing the helpless Po. He struggled, but it was no use. After a torturous few seconds she finally relinquished.

"What was that?!" Po shouted, outraged.

"That… was amazing…" Xia said, lost in pure bliss. "I've been meaning to do that ever since we first met at the palace, and this time there were no annoying interferences to get between us. Well now that that's done, I guess you've served your one and only purpose to me. Guards, give the panda a proper execution tomorrow in front of the whole town!"

Xia turned back to face Po, now a cold and unfeeling demeanor.

"I'm sorry it has to end this way, but you just wouldn't obey me. You'll be dead by tomorrow and your precious kitten will be joining you shortly. I'm going to take you, and then I will take everything you ever cared about. And after the valley is ashes, I will finally be content."

Po's eyes widened in shock.

"No, not the valley. My wife, my ch-" But Po stopped himself before he could say 'child'. The last thing he wanted Xia to know was that Tigress had a baby on the way.

"Well look on the bright side, at least you'll be long dead before I make it to the valley, so you won't have to watch." She said, smiling. "And after I'm done with the Valley of Peace, you will be known as the Dragon Warrior that failed everyone. But who knows, maybe your wife will make an excellent servant to me!"

"She'll kill you long before that happens!"

"Well, I guess we'll see about that. I still have a few tricks up my sleeves."

And Xia then left him in the cell, to die.

In his mind, Po was panicking. He pulled against the metal links that rooted him to the wall, but like all the other times he had tried, nothing.

"No, I have to protect the valley!" He shouted, as if yelling would somehow magically set him free.

But then he came up with an idea.

It was insane. It would probably kill him, but he had to try something.

"Well, here goes nothing…" Po said as he grabbed one of his fingers between his thumb and index finger and flexed his pinky.

In an instant, there was a blinding flash of light. And in that split second, everything went black.

"What? You preformed the Wuxi Finger Hold on yourself?" Shifu asked, awestruck.

"Yea." Po replied. "And it seemed to do the trick in busting me out."

"It's a miracle you're still alive panda." Shifu said now with a serious demeanor. "You know that the Wuxi Finger Hold is for emergencies only and you can't just go around blowing things up and-"

"Father." Tigress said calmly, interrupting Shifu's lecture. "Let's just let Po finish his story."

"Well, that's pretty much it actually." Po said, "The Wuxi Finger Hold worked and the cell was destroyed. I wasn't too injured, so I went to a shop, packed some supplies while everyone was still confused, and I escaped. I headed back for the valley, but Xia started following me. She'll be here in a few days and she's going to destroy everything." Po said hopelessly. "We have to evacuate everyone right now"

"Po's right. We need to get everyone out of harm's way and we need to get all of the artifacts out of the palace. Crane, Viper; Go and get everyone out of the valley. Monkey, Mantis; Organize a transport for the relics in the palace. And Tigress, watch over Po for a few hours until he begins to feel better." Shifu ordered his students, sending them off on their assigned tasks. "If any of you need me, I'll be locking up some important things myself." The red panda said briskly as he hurried off.

Now Po and Tigress were alone in the recovery room, not sure what exactly to say. They had been separated for months now, and every time they seemed to be united at last they were just torn apart again. Since the wedding, they hadn't been able to have a real conversation.

Po was the first to break the silence, but it wasn't exactly what Tigress wanted to hear.

"Ti, I want you to go with the evacuation party." He said with a heavy heart.

"What, are you crazy?" She said with wide eyes. "I'm staying here by your side. And I'm going to finish Xia off once and for all."

"No Tigress, you have to go. You're pregnan-"

"Shhhhhhhh! Somebody might hear you!" She hissed.

"What? You mean you haven't told anyone yet?"

"I couldn't Po. I couldn't announce our child to everyone if you weren't going to be there to do it with me."

"You know they're going to find out eventually!"

"I know, and I think that this might be the right time to talk to Shifu."

"What, now?"

"Yes, we can go and talk to Shifu right now!"

"Tigress, Shifu's going to want you to leave as well once he finds out. If you die…" Po tried to say, before choking up. "Never mind… but the point is, when Xia finds out you're pregnant, she's going to try even harder to kill you."

"Po, she won't find out! It's not that noticeable yet…" She said, looking down at her abdomen, frowning at the already present bulge. "But the point is I'm not leaving and that's FINAL." She said firmly.

"Ti, please don't make this hard." Po pleaded. "Everything will be fine."

"Don't lie to me, alright. Do you take me for an idiot? I know exactly what's going to happen if I'm not here to protect you!" Tigress yelled.

"Who says I need protecting? Look, I'm just trying to do what's best for our child!" Po said with a now-raised voice as well.

"Po!" Tigress roared back, "We have to fight together! The valley needs both of us side by side. If I don't stop Xia, she'll just keep coming back until she succeeds in killing us!"

"I know, it's just… I'm scared. For you, for the five, for our kid. I feel like this is going to tear us all apart." Po said softly, instantly calming Tigress down.

"I'm scared too Po..." The feline said as she buried her face in his plush fur once more. Po almost felt like Tigress was trembling a little, but he knew she was much too proud to show any sort of fear. "So, let's go talk to Shifu." She said, dropping the subject immediately.

"I can't. You heard Shifu, I'm still recovering."

"Oh come on Po, you'll be fine. She said as she got up, took Po's paw, and literally flung Po off the bed."

"Owwwww…"

"Po come on!" Tigress said, a hint of anxiety peppered in her voice. So, she took his hand and dragged him off.

Just outside, a thick cloud cover rolled in to the valley, and all of the birds stopped chirping. Everything grew ominously quiet in the valley. The world was talking a deep breath before the plunge…

Well, sorry that was so long everyone! I hope you liked it and please review! Thank you so much! Also, I'm going to be taking a 2 week vacation so I wont be writing for a little bit. I hope you liked this and I'll see you again in a few weeks! You can check my profile for information regarding when I'll be back and writing again, as well as other information. Thanks again!

-wolfgangwalker12